Depends on who you're buying from. Companies like DPMS and Bushmaster make "hobby guns" nothing you should have your life depend on. LWRC,LMT, Noveske, Colt, etc make high quality, reliable weapons.
What? I own a DPMS, in .223, and it has been more than reliable. It fires/cycles every time I pull the trigger.
And I have Bushmaster that I've put thousands of rounds through and have yet to have a malfunction. It's just as good as any of the Colts I've carried in the military.
For me reliable is being able to put 2000 rounds downrange over three days time in shitty conditions with minimum malfunctions due to the weapon. Bushmaster and DPMS target the civilian market thus they cut corners where they can to maximize profit and keep costs down. They're fine for weekend plinking etc but they don't stack up to real gunfighter weapons. You pay the extra cash for QA/QC, Bushy has had issues with staking carrier keys, sights being off-center, and flash suppressors flying off the end of their guns. Why do you think there's been an outcry about the civilian ACR being manufactured by Bushy? It's not just the pricepoint. http://www.10-8forums.com/ubbthread...roken+bolt"&topic=&Search=true#Post24092
In other news, now cops can zap the everloving shit out of you with a shotgun! <a class="postlink" href="http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-03/shock-bullet" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.popsci.com/technology/articl ... ock-bullet</a>
Congrats to all of us who live in AZ..... I think. The governor just signed some legislation making it legal for anyone who can legally own a handgun to carry it concealed without a permit. While I have maintained a concealed carry permit for the last 12 years by taking renewal classes and the mandatory shooting qualifier, my belief is that this is not such a bad thing. I would however encourage all those who chose to buy and carry concealed to maybe invest in some classes and some range time, or we will see some gene pool cleansing. Also carrying a weapon concealed or not does not make you a badass or a law enforcer, what it makes you is more responsible to know what the law is regarding shoot and don't shoot situations so while I say congrats for being able to excercise a constitutional freedom I would say educate yourself and don't fuck it up for the rest of us. Thought?
Well I thought I had my decision made... until I came across the Sprinfield XD45 Compact. I really like that it comes w/ both a 10 rd magazine for concealed carry, and a 13 rd magazine (w/ grip extension) for other usage. If I'm reading the specs right, it looks like it's actually about the same size as the P345 w/ the 13 rd clip, and about 3/4" shorter (in height) than the P345 w/ the 10 rd clip. I'm not sure how comfortable I'd be w/ the 10 rd clip, as it looks like your pinkie hangs off the end of the grip. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find a store around here that carries the XD45 Compact to see how it feels in my hand compared to the P345. Here are the specs on both if anyone's interested: http://www.ruger.com/products/p345/specSheets/6647.html http://www.springfield-armory.com/assets/pdf/SPRINGFIELD_Book_XD9645.pdf
I'm kind of on the fence. To buy a handgun in Hawaii is an enormous pain in the ass. First, you have to take a handgun safety class. $200. ($100 to go to purchase price of handgun) Then you have to get permission from the chief of police, they do a background/fingerprint. Then you have the federal waiting period. Then you give up your money and get your gun. It took me three weeks to buy a HK 45 compact. There is no concealed carry in Hawaii. At all. Generally, the only shootings we have are the illegal gang shootings, guy shooting his old lady cause she talks too much, etc. I'm planning on moving to Alaska and carrying. My wife is undecided about it. All in all, I'd rather have one on me at all times. I could vote for everyone having to take a basic safety class. There are just too many fucktards running around without common sense. I'm all for the rules involved with carrying too. No guns in bars. Alcohol and firearms is always a bad idea. Having to tell the police that you're carrying as soon as they start talking to you. Why give them an excuse? If anything, it'll hopefully weed out the walking Darwin award winners.
Earlier this year we in Arizona decided it was a good idea to be allowed to carry a gun concealed or visible into a bar provided you are not drinking. We are still required to notify law enforcement if we have a weapon if are pulled over etc.
Not to be a sourpuss, but I've never picked up a non crew-served weapon, aimed, pulled the trigger, and not had a round go off. Ever. Obviously I'm not counting the occasional unloaded "dead man's guns" due to me being a bonehead. I've also never heard the ultra-reliability debate come out of the mouth of someone who has been in a gun fight unless they were selling something. Guns from virtually all major manufacturers are plenty reliable enough to kill people with 99.999% of the time. Cops and warfighters don't sit around talking about how Brand X is a "real" gun while Brand Y is junk... posers do that.
If you are looking for a concealable self-defense gun, you ought to stop checking out the .45's and go back to the .40's. I know that a guy hit with a .40 is going to be just as ineffective at hurting or robbing me as a guy hit with a .45. I know a bunch of ballistics experts might come out and say some shit about velocity and kinetic energy, but lets face facts here; a bullet is a bullet, and its gonna fucking hurt, if not kill, you. The .40 kicks less, holds more rounds (much bigger bonus, because what are the odds your gonna get a chance to reload in your anticipated emergency?) and will still put a hurting on someone. I suggest the hollowpoint .40's. They are some MEAN bastards.
I basically agree that the .40 and .45 are fairly comparable (based on what I've read/been told by those more knowledgeable than me), but in looking at the Springfield XD and XD(m) series of pistols, it looks like the most you're going to get is an additional 3 rds of .40 ammo compared to a similar sized .45 (16 rds of .40 vs 13 rds of .45). The new XD(m) 3.8 in .40 is 7" long by 5.6" high, compared to the XD .45 Compact which is 7.3" long by 5.75" high (with 16 rd and 13 rd capacities respectively). The advantage the XD .45 Compact has is the option of a 10 rd magazine, which shortens its height to 5" even. I didn't have any luck finding a local store that carried the XD .45 Compact, but maybe I can find one that has the XD(m) 3.8 in .40 to fondle.
I agree with everything you say, but the one problem I see in letting anyone have a concealed weapon is bolded in the quote. I'm all for responsible, intelligent people having concealed weapons, but it's the dumbasses who won't care to learn how to operate and be safe with firearms and don't understand the difference between a situation that warrants the usage of a concealed weapon vs. not. There's a big difference between someone purchasing a gun for concealed carry and the seller saying "Now you be safe with that!" compared to structured classes and qualification shoots. Simply put, I don't trust just anyone with a gun. I don't. I believe responsible people have the right to defend themselves with the means they feel necessary, but the key word is responsible. I'm going to guess that violent crime in Arizona will drop, but like you said- some idiots will die too. This issue feels rather relevant to me because I've got only six days until I'm 21 and therefore eligible under MN law to get a concealed carry permit. The one pistol I own is a Benjamin pellet pistol, and the only thing it's really good for is whacking sparrows in barns at night or putting the occasional backyard rabbit to sleep. I don't really have the money to buy a centerfire pistol suitable for concealed carry, nor do I have the money and time for classes and enough target shooting to feel comfortable with carrying said pistol. However I've been doing a lot of thinking about it and I think it's an option for the future after I graduate and (probably) start a family. The more I think about it, the more the seriousness hits me... I mean (to be short), carrying a pistol is a big fucking deal! More important to me, however, is the gun control on my campus. Only police officers and other authorities on duty (i.e. the national guard) can carry on the U of M campus and I believe that needs to change. When you put 50,000+ young people together on a campus in the middle of a large urban area, it's practically a goldmine for criminals who want to exploit relatively defenseless people. To enable existing concealed carry permit holders to exercise their right on this campus would send a great message to the fuckers that want to rob and rape and steal around here: We can protect ourselves. I don't think changing the U's stance on gun control would have any real visible changes as concealed weapons are concealed weapons. Nobody should know if you choose to arm yourself unless you tell them or reveal said weapon, so we wouldn't have a campus that looks like an IPSC match. The difference would be made when someone attempts a robbery and gets shot and an innocent victim remains unharmed. More people should be taking firearms safety classes even if they don't plan on owning a gun. I think the fear and negative stigma that surrounds guns could be diminished if more people were simply educated about them and learned how they can be safely handled and used (and more importantly- what not to do with them). On a side note, I took my girlfriend out shooting this weekend. She hadn't done any sort of target shooting before and after a couple hours of prone shooting with one of my .22s she had a priceless smile on her face. Totally worth it.
While I was showing her my shooting setup and teaching her to how to shoot, etc., I had an opportunity to try out the new sights I got for my Suhl. A new (still in plastic when I got it) Kimber 82G rear sight: The Suhl came with a front globe sight, but the aperture insert was way too big so I got some Lee-Shaver inserts for Anschutz sights (which fit the Suhl). I've got a strong preference for the finer four post insert: The sight radius with these sights is almost 31" which is, well, awesome. I was drilling some good 3/4" groups shooting prone at 50 yards without doing a lot of fine sling/handstop adjustment. I use a Springfield Armory National Match sling and like it (you can see it in the first photo), although the leather could be a little more supple. I've got the trigger adjusted down to around 2 oz. with zero creep (it breaks so clean!). I love this rifle. I think I might just have to keep practicing and show up at an NRA Smallbore match or two this summer... Prone shooting is a lot of fun.
Here's a useful spreadsheet for those in the market for an AR-15. It's a breakdown of what features different brands have. http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pwswheghNQsEuEhjFwPrgTA&single=true&gid=5&output=html Of course I might just be full of shit and trying to sell you something.
That 3/4" difference in height on the grip is not something that is going to be super noticeable during ccw if you have the right holster, and have it set up correctly. In my experience, the dimensions that are most noticeable are the overall thickness, followed by the barrel length. Grip length doesn't make much of a difference, at least not the way I carry. I'm telling you right now, if you buy the P345 and a Crossbreed Supertuck, and have trouble concealing it, Crossbreed will buy the holster back, and I will buy the gun from you (if you're close enough, PM me your location). I'm 100% serious, I absolutely cannot explain to you how great a setup the P345 and supertuck is, you have to experience it yourself. I'm not alone in that view, by the way. If you plan to carry IWB, the Supertuck will conceal that P345 just as easily as any .40, and I would choose a .45 over a .40 any day. Others have different opinions, but that's mine. All that being said, the Springfield XD guns are nice as well. You will be well served by either the XD or the Ruger. If you get the XD, spring for the xD"M" model, with the interchangeable grips. Ergonomics makes a big difference in how well the average person shoots, anything you can do to make the gun fit your hand better will help.
So I'm working on a project now that (I guess) some people might find interesting here. I'm not much of a pistol shooter, nor have I claimed to be. But they're fun and I had a nice pellet pistol (yeah, I'm badass like that) sitting in the garage collecting dust. I decided to fix it up some. It's main purpose was for shooting sparrows nesting in barn and loafing shed lofts at night (it's perfect for that) and occasionally shooting at rabbits in the backyard (although I never connected). Now I'm going to set up a bullet trap and start practicing some pistol shooting in my basement. I already do some dry-fire practice with my rifles down there, so I'll do alot of shooting. The wood came from a hunk of walnut I found in our stack of firewood. It had a crotch running right through it, and I immediately though "save it!" when I saw it. So, I got it cut up, planed out, and after a few years of drying it's good to go. It was free from the start, so I won't cry if I fuck something up. Pistol with the wood in place. Nickel-plated pistol with crotch black walnut. Not bad, eh? I've started inletting for the fore-end. Pretty simple operation- measure where the front lever sits, drill at both ends, and connect the inletting with a chisel. I also decided that since I'm taking the time to do this stuff by hand, I might as well have a final product thats as close to perfect as possible. I want to have the grips very well fitted to my hand, so I used a trick I figured out awhile ago. I took a piece of wood about the size and thickness of the steel frame, put 1/2" or so of clay on both sides, and squeezed hard into the clay (keeping my wrist at the same angle of the grip) so it left a perfect impression of how my hand is most comfortable while shooting. We'll see how it turns out. Hopefully I'm as good as I think I am with a half-round file and round rasp.
I think I'm going to end up going w/ the XD 45 Compact, with the additional rounds it carries being the deciding factor. That said, I really do love how the P345 feels in my hand, it's slimmer, and has a manual safety (which I like). I ended up finding a place that had an XD 45 Compact, and I guess I have small hands b/c I was able to keep my pinkie on the very end of the 10 rd grip. And I'm totally sold on the Crossbreed SuperTuck holster. I'm glad you turned me onto it b/c people have nothing but nice things to say about it. Interesting little tidbit: the guy who owns Crossbreed also owns the XDTalk.com website and forums.
<a class="postlink" href="http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2010/04/remington-releases-1911-r1-pistol/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/201 ... r1-pistol/</a> Remington is making a 1911. Your thoughts?
The first thing I thought when I saw the article was "another 1911?", but when I saw the price I wasn't as skeptical. I don't doubt that this will be just as reliable as most higher end 1911's but it won't cost an arm and a leg to have it. I also like the fact that they stuck to the original A1 form. Nice looking gun for $700.