Romad7

  I have spent my entire adult life (17-34) so far in the military and I can tell you, respectfully, you do not have a clue as to what you are talking about.   Your comment about 18-25 year olds not understanding that their mortality is highly disrespectful to the ones who put themselves in danger every day, they know the cost of war and are fully willing to pay it with their lives if need be.  Many of them have lost friends and have have aged years in days from the stress and lessons of combat.  Yet they still continue on.   None of our troops are trained to be cannon fodder and trust me when I say that they ask a lot of questions, I know this from experience as a supervisor.  They are not mindless even after years of training.  They are trained to follow orders because hesitation and debate in combat can get people killed but they are not just robots.   About UAV pilots, there is much more to operating unmanned platforms than just fiddling with an XBox controller.  Also, women have been flying them since the beginning and are excellent combat pilots.  This debate isn't about combat pilots though.   As to the gear that we carry, it's all necessary.  I carried a 20ish lb radio in my 60-70 lbs of gear which I used to call attack aircraft and crush hajis.  The rest of the gear kept me alive and I wouldn't have left any of it behind when going on missions.  That a-hole in the rag may be comfortable but he also died hungry.  The discomfort from my gear was definitely a good pain.   I'm tired of people talking about the military like they know something when they have no experience.   Ok, rant over...

I just got back from a road trip and carried my LCP in my pocket holster and had my G17 in a backpack nearby (in the truck or hotel room). This is mainly because my regular carry Officer 1911 is in for warranty work and I am not setup to carry anything else but I felt ok with this interim solution. I bought some high performance defense rounds to up the capability of the LCP as much as I could.

No but I lurk quite a bit over at the Sniper's Hide Forum and they say its one of the best rifle suppressors out there.  I don't have any yet but I am pretty set on the Thunderbeast for my 7mm Mag.  

Thunderbeast gets a lot of good reviews for the big guns.

It's always nice to have good people who are local for this kind of thing. I like being able to personally interact with someone in these kinds of things. Glad to hear that it worked out for you. Let us know how that CZ works out for you, I'm getting pretty curious about the brand myself.

That Thureon is looking really good to me.  I'll have to look into the benefits of the 10mm and see if I want to switch home defense to that caliber since I would like to have a carbine/pistol combo in the same caliber with the same mags.  I like the idea of a his and hers matching set of Thureon 9s and Glock 17s.  Throw in a bag of 33rd mags and we'd be good to go:-)

  The Tavor is definitely on the short list.  I think she would actually like a bullpup, if not I guess I could be forced to keep it;-)

All good ideas.  The Just Right Carbine looks interesting too.  I was also just looking at the Thureon carbine that takes Glock mags as well.  She has a Beretta 92 now but I'll probably change that out for a Glock 17 to match mine to keep everything the same for our defense guns.  The PCCs are looking very good though.   If she does want to stick with the 92, the CX4 is looking interesting too.

Those sound like good options, I was looking lustfully at a UMP myself:-) Which pistol caliber would you recommend if you had to pick one? The odds are quite low that she'll have to take the shot and this is one of those things that makes me wonder if I am being too paranoid. But I enjoy gun shopping with a purpose in mind and something like a PCC would be useful in the more likely situation of her being cornered in the house by an intruder....or zombies;-) Thanks

When I was considering this I went to a small local range that does the classes and talked to the instructor. He offered to mentor me if I wanted to teach classes there. That might be something to look into. Basically by the sounds of it, if you meet the basic requirements, there's a course then a test and you're good to go after that. He said that the test involved teaching a portion of the class in front of a review board among other things. Do you have experience in public speaking of any kind? I would be calling on my experience as a Boy Scout leader and military instructor. Teaching small groups is something that many people are weak in. Here's some info to get you started. NRA info http://training.nra.org/training/become-an-instructor.aspx Rules, check page 7 http://www.tn.gov/sos/rules/1340/1340-02/1340-02-03.pdf State page http://www.tn.gov/safety/handgun/school.shtml

Good reminder, I was looking at joining too.

But can she be a Girl Scout leader now? Those would be some badass Girl Scouts!

I can see how this would happen in our society. I hate that if I am prepared for any situation with the best tools available and arm my family to do the same then I am looking for trouble! I'm not upset with anyone here, you guys are just trying to help me but its the general public that is annoying me with all their ignorance and whining. Thanks:-)

Lots of good points and I'll address the main one. Neither one of us are looking for a fight, I can see how it might looks that way but I can assure you I am not "that guy". We are just aware that in every bad guy scenario, we are the first line of defense. The conversation started when my wife asked me about what to do if someone grabbed our child from our home and was running away with her. She asked which weapon to use. I realized that I don't have anything that she would be comfortable with practicing enough to be able to take the shot (she is a very good shot under optimal conditions, I would introduce her to stress training). So I started thinking about what to get her for such a situation and here we are. This would be a last resort weapon since we have enough "normal" defense weapons available for home defense. So, if this gun is being used its for a reason that, to us, would justify the legal issues of losing the gun or anything else. The range is because of the land that we own, 200 is about the max range from the house to the furthest points on our property. Also, as for over penetration, we talked about that and I don't want to go on record with my thoughts on how to handle that. I am a reasonable man am I am truly taking all of your advice into account here. I laid in bed last night war gaming all of this in my head. Heck, with all the good points that were brought up, she might be better off with a 357 mag lever gun, I'm seriously considering that. Thanks:-)

I forgot about that one and it comes in 300 BLK. Thanks!

Did he specify if the suppressor was the problem or the SBR or both?

I've already missed turns while driving and listening to Tolkien.

I'll check those out, thanks!

I think an SBR AR in 300 BLK is about as good as it gets and likely will be my personal build.  The thing is the ergonomics of the charging handle.  For us shooters it seems like a small issue but for her its a big deal.  Makes things much more difficult for me but I do love shopping for gun stuff!

This too.  Even though it would be minimal, it would still concern my wife a lot if she had to use it for real.

I think the limiting factor that will make the difference for this is the effective range of a PCC.  This is mainly for if she has to take the fight outside.  The ideal weapon would have an effective range of at least 200 yds.  How would a PCC perform in that scenario?  My experience is only with rifle caliber carbines so I don't have much practical experience with the limitations of PCCs.     The suppressor is more icing on the cake and something that I want as well:-)  She is pretty sensitive to loud noises so I am just trying to stack the deck in her favor.  I have had M4s fired within feet of my head in combat so I completely get where you are coming from but she not trained to handle that kind of thing yet (although she would likely surprise me).  I'm am working on the training part though, just did some drills a couple days ago and she's looking good.

Looks like the good stuff was redacted by the mod.

I'm in the planning stages of building the perfect PDW for my wife and I'm leaning towards a 300 BLK SBR. Problem is that she doesn't like ARs for the following reasons. Please realize that while we may find some of these reasons to be not a big deal, they are important to her so I would like to build a gun that is comfortable for her. Rifle is a DD M4 with Samson Evo 12". Charging handle is awkward for her. I'm thinking a non reciprocating charging handle on the left in front of the receiver would be best. Weight of the rifle is difficult for her. She is in great shape but not happy with the weight of a full sized rifle. This is why I'm going with an SBR. Needs to be quiet (I fully understand the limitations of this) so it'll need to be easily suppressed while maintaining good ballistics out to 200yds or so. If she grabs this for defense the noise of a rifle round would probably be too much without ear pro. My thoughts are a 300 BLK 8-9.5" barrel with titanium suppressor. The only thing that looks really good at the moment is the new ARAK-21 upper but their SBR is going to be 11.5" and I would like to go shorter if I'm going to do the whole SBR thing. I'm have also looked at these but they're not really doing for me. ACR SCAR Tavor Am I overlooking something great? Your thoughts on the whole thing? Thanks!

I just started with audio books for long drives, I love it. Thanks for the info, I'll be checking that out!

Lucky girl, I'm jealous!