I'm just getting into shooting, thanks to a girlfriend with a wonderfully redneck family. Shot a .22 for my first couple times out, then my dad gave me his 9mm H&K P7M8 that he used to carry when he was a cop. I like the gun, but I read that the P7's can be picky with ammo. With that in mind, I want to get a 9mm that I can run a shitton of cheap Walmart ammo through when I'm at the range (or the inlaws' backyard) with little or no effect on the gun. I was thinking maybe a Glock 17 or 19? Any other suggestions or pointers for someone just starting in pistol shooting?
I can't speak directly to the gun you mentioned, but my personal philosophy is that as long as you keep your gun clean and well maintained, and don't run absolute shit ammo through it (like some crazy Russian surplus from the cold war), you should be fine. You may have the occasional misfeed or misfire, but just deal with it and carry on. I tend to think that too many newbies read shit on the intarwebs and get too worried about stuff that doesn't matter. Just go shoot the gun and have fun. As you get more experience, you can start looking around for something new and fun to play with, but for now just enjoy the gun you have and learn to shoot. $0.02
Don't want to sound like a killjoy or anything, but the other thing I'd recommend is to get some training as early as you can. Don't learn bad habits that you have to unlearn later... assuming you want to do more than just send lead downrange. Understand proper stance, grip, how grip affects your shot, sight pictures, etc, and work on it from day one. Doesn't sound fun, but it pays off pretty fast. It's always fun being that guy that can blow the fuck out of the 9-10 ring rather than have your target come back looking like you were using a shotgun. Or, just go get these and have fun:
I can't speak highly enough about the FNP-9. It ate everything I put through it with zero failures to [insert problem] in ~3K rounds. I shot cheap Winchester White Box almost exclusively. If you can get your hands on one, try it out to see if it fits you well. They also come with 3 hi-cap mags and have two backstraps so you can adjust how it fits your hand. If you do decide to get one (or no matter what you decide to get) call CDNN to see if they've got what you want in stock. I bought mine from there and they had, by far, the best price--even after transfer fees.
Anyone have any experience with these? <a class="postlink" href="http://theisholsters.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://theisholsters.com/</a>
I've stumbled across an awesome blog all about obscure firearms. The guy has a number of period manuals (pdfs) for old rifles, pistols, and machine guns, as well as some great demonstration videos. Now I'll have to start saving up for a Lewis gun.
I can tell you that I make my own holsters out of kydex. You can buy the materials to make these holsters with no special equipment for a fraction of this price. knifekits.com. Thats where I get my materials.
I've got a one month old kid at home so unfortunately I don't have time to pick up or learn a new hobby and I need a new holster, pronto.
I got back to work on one of the ultralight cedar laminate stocks I've been slowly been progressing on and got a bunch of work done this weekend As big as the damn thing is, it's gonna weight significantly less than the 10.5 lb. requirement in the competition it's built for. The stock is a feather, even after bedding with aluminum pillars and a steel-filled epoxy. I've got some more shaping to do and boo-boos to fix before finishing and doing the final bedding, but for now this is the first time it's looked like a real gun and not a pipe stuck in a 2x4. This will easily surpass my other target rifles in terms of accuracy. The carbon fiber trigger guard is kinda special too... I'm lucky I didn't screw up inletting it for the trigger guts. The trigger has 5 adjustment screws and this way all of them can be adjusted without taking the entire gun apart. What has amazed me is how easily the cedar works (until you hit a seam with carbon fiber). Compared to walnut, I can make it melt like butter with a sharp rasp and sanding takes 1/4 of the time. This makes it easy for me to remove too much material too fast, but I'll take it.
I was in a carving mood last night and got the shaping almost complete. It goes by quickly when the wood is soft and you've had the idea in your head for a long time. I can't do work like that with power tools. Spoiler Shit ton o' pics here. <a class="postlink" href="http://northernriflestocks.com/2011/10/24/cedar-and-carbon-fiber-suhl-150-stocks-part-v/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://northernriflestocks.com/2011/10/ ... ks-part-v/</a>
I apologize if this has been answered, and please delete if so. I only went back a few pages and didn't find it in a search. I'm looking for recommendations for a $500-800 model 1911 .45, new or used. Ideally, I want a Colt, but I don't really care about the brand other than getting a quality gun for the money. I don't think it will be a concealed carry, more likely just a range gun and something to carry when I go hunting. This is what I am looking at currently, what do you guys think? http://texasguntrader.com/index.php?a=2&b=156247 In case the link doesn't work, it's a Colt Commander that appears to be in good shape for $675.
I only shoot 1911's, and all I have are models made by Springfield Armory, combined my pistols have over 5,000 rounds run through them. So my ( admittedly biased ) opinion is to buy a SA 1911. My favorite and most used. New at $825 <a class="postlink" href="http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=257781614#PIC" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewIt ... 781614#PIC</a> With that being said Colt makes a fine 1911 from what I have heard.
For that price point, I have heard good things about Rock Island Armory, a Philippines-based company. Don't think of it as "foreign-made", think of it as "American as of 1940".
I own a 12 gauge Remington 105 CTI II. Semi-auto, light weight, recoil almost comparable to a 20 gauge. Great skeet shooting gun, better hunting gun; works best with heavy loads. Makes me mad they don't produce them anymore. But now, I want to turn my 105 into, primarily, a slug gun (night hunting for hogs; legal where I live). At 80 yards with a sabot slug I was making 4", 3 round groupings. Bead sights, smooth barrel, Remington sabot slugs, improved cylinder choke. Pictures if you want them. And I want to do better. I've done my research, but opinions are like assholes, and I'd like to hear what you assholes think. Muzzle break (recoil with slugs is terrible)? Rifled choke (though they're generally for buck shot)? Red dot or shotgun scope? Would a recoil pad make that much of a difference to keep me on target for a follow-up? What about bait? I've tried diesel, syrup, honey, beer and jello powder on corn. Also add catfish stink bait, vegetables, fruits, and overcooked fried eggs. I also just setup a deer feeder, and purchased a spotlight/red LED headlamp (cheaper than feeder lights). Works to 70 yards. Right now, I've got a semi-auto shotgun that shoots slugs in a reasonably-accurate manner up to 80 yards in low-wind, low-light conditions without the advantage any aftermarket sights. And I'd like to improve upon it, specifically as far as nighttime performance goes. Ideas for an improved nighttime slug gun are appreciated. My budget is limited to spending money on what is actually effective.
Shooting sabot slugs out of a smoothbore barrel often results in keyholing (the slug hitting the target with its side rather than the nose). You may have had decent results thus far, but a fully-rifled barrel will definitely increase the accuracy of sabot slugs. See if you can find one used. I'm not sure a rifled choke would be enough to prevent keyholing, but someone with more experience on that matter can chime in. For reference, I shoot sabot slugs out of a Rem. 870 with a fully rifled barrel. A muzzle brake, to me, is probably unnecessary. A semi-auto with a decent recoil pad should soften the recoil enough. Look to see if Limbsaver makes a recoil pad for that gun, or, if you're lucky, if Remington has one of their new Supercell pads that will fit it. I can't comment on the best sight setup for night because I've never hunted at night, but I feel like a red dot would give you the ability to transfer between targets quicker while giving you a much better field of view in low-light conditions.
You don't need a muzzle break. From the beginning of time, real men have launched slugs out of shotguns with a spike in testosterone being a direct result of the recoil hitting the shoulder (there are testosterone precurser receptors there, it's been proven). Somewhere in the last 10 years, tacti-cool mall ninjas have decided they need to put a muzzle break and flash supressor on everything larger than a BB gun. This has led to the decline of society and the rise in terrorism. Recoil puts hair on your chest. Sack up and deal with it. As for a scope, I would advise against it. In my personal opinion, scopes ruin shot guns. The beauty of a shotgun is that you can just point an shoot. When you have a scope on it, you can't acquire your sight picture quickly and the gun becomes useless. My brother in law missed a 12 point buck last year. It was running up a dirt path straight toward him. The only thing between he and the deer was a 4' barbed wire fence. It ran up to the fence, stopped broadside about 20' away and my brother in law couldn't find it in the scope so he just started firing blindly. Had he not had the scope, he would have dropped the largest deer of his life. Go with the red dot.
I can't speak for shooting at night but I do know how much shooting slugs can suck. Many pre-fitted recoil pads are made for Remington shotguns, and in a lightweight gun you will definitely appreciate having a nice soft pad to soak up some of that recoil. I have a Limbsaver on my Remington 870 and it works well but I currently prefer to use Pachmayr Decelerator pads... I think they are more durable. 4" with slugs and open sights at 80 yards is actually pretty damn good if you ask me. Don't bother with a rifled choke and sabot slugs... you'd be pissing money away. If you want to shoot rifled slugs with a scope/red dot, buy a shotgun dedicated to that job and don't frustrate yourself with trying to turn your 105 into a slug gun. Keep the improved cylinder in and pick up a few boxes of rifled slugs from different manufacturers to test and don't hesitate to try reduced recoil loads. Brenneke slugs are winners in my gun. Ammo testing can cut your groups down, although like I said 4" at any range with rifled slugs is good. I'd even take a little bead on the end of the barrel over a red dot. I've shot one deer on the run as it was bounding out of a slough and credit making the shot to years of practice hitting stuff on the move with that bead. If you have time to aim, a lil bead can be plenty precise. It's a matter of practice. I don't even think scope mounts or rifled barrels are/were made for Remington 105s... it's not a platform intended for slugs.
Few points of clarification: - The beads came stock on the gun and are what I was using; one at the tip of the barrel, one in the rear. When I was shooting at that range, the bead was covering what I felt like was too much of the target. - The desire for a recoil reduction had nothing to do the recoil being uncomfortable; it had everything to do with the recoil 1) throwing off the shot, as slugs have a comparatively long barrel time, and 2) the recoil making it take longer to get back on target for a second shot. - I didn't think the 105 was a platform for slugs either. Because it's a semi-auto, it does better with heavier loads, and because of that it kind of defaulted itself into the hunting category (despite Remington's best attempts to make it perfect at everything; Jack of all trades, master of none). Although I guess recoil is like alcohol, in that you build up a tolerance, so I was using it for shooting clay on a regular basis. Then when we put slugs through it, I saw the groupings, put 30 rounds through it to make sure it wasn't a fluke, and kind of fell ass-backwards into the slug gun conversion idea. This saturday morning I'll be going out with a buddy; he'll carry the 105, I'll carry my rifle and .40 cal in the holster. On the recommendation of a salty old ex-cop now-rancher I ran into, I'l going to load him up with some 00 Buck and try to get close. Four rounds of the buckshot, and if we post up somewhere with range he'll toss in two rounds of slugs. I know getting close enough to a hog for buckshot isn't terribly safe (if you've never seen a hog... they charge), but with 32 rounds of .40 cal target loads for backup, worst case is we don't get the meat.
Maybe then some nice fiber optic sights... they would definitely help you know what you're aiming at in the dark. I think open sights would be better for target acquisition for slug shooting, especially at night. You can get sights that fit the rib. I've done a lot of night shooting and fiber optic sights have been the fastest for me. I'm used to shooting pump action shotguns and don't know what putting a slug through the semi-auto would be like, but a good recoil pad does make a big difference regardless. Maybe you could try a mercury reducer? The stock isn't designed for shooting slugs/buckshot so it's gonna slap you around a little more regardless, especially if it doesn't fit you well to begin with.