Thearmededucator

If your physical liabilities are forcing you to stop carrying IWB, it makes very little sense to move the gun to the furthest extremity on your body. Instead I would recommend looking into appendix carry, particularly with a PHLster Enigma, which is a great option in shorts (I was able to wear mine at the spray park with the kids without a shirt)

Don’t get me wrong, a Taurus is adequate, but honestly, as I am reading it, I think your mindset on it is a bit messed up. You are naturally correct in focusing on carry gun before the (presumably more expensive) fun gun in a couple of months. But the carry gun is life saving equipment, and therefore not something to skimp on. Especially when significantly better arms to be had for minimal price differences. On this forum you can often see well cared for Glocks (for example) go $400 or less. Additionally (and this part often gets overlooked) all the other equipment like spare parts, magazines, and (especially) holsters are ubiquitous. I recommend people build these costs into the initial investment for the best return. Lastly, have you shot numerous models, to include the Taurus, for firsthand experience? Online opinions (mine included) mean Jack squat in the face of personal experience.

Outside makes a big difference. The in-ear foamies are the best rated. I use AXIL XCOR for most of my shooting.

The same things as always. We just hear about them all now

Extra props to the deacon who deployed his concealed F150

What do you know? If you prevent entry by force, you also prevent casualties

I appreciate a cast iron skillet, but I just use a couple of lodges

Firing pin and grip safeties are great ideas for Sig

I’d never seen that quote before, and have now seen it twice in one day. the world is strange

If you like this, read Varg Freeborn’s books “Violence of Mind” and “Beyond OODA”

I’d love to go, but I have a private lesson scheduled

“When Violence is the Answer” by Tim Larkin

The IWI Galil seems to fit what you are looking for. M1A and FAL https://primaryweapons.com/ar-series/ also use long stroke piston systems.

Let me look in my parts bin

I would suggest getting a rifle length platform first. You can use a full size rifle very effectively in close quarters, but you can never get that velocity back for longer range

I just finished the book “The Guns of John Moses Browning” by Nathan Gorenstein and really enjoyed it. I figured someone on here would be interested in it as well https://www.audible.com/pd/1797127926?source_code=ASSORAP0511160006&share_location=player_overflow

As an instructor, I’d like to offer some other advice. One, you seem to be jumping into everything simultaneously. For a lot of people doing so leads to frustration and or burn out. Instead figure out your priorities and start there. From your other posts, my first recommendation would be training; preferably even before buying your first gun. That way you’ll base your decisions on experience and not conjecture. Additionally, it’s often not the best idea to try to teach a spouse to shoot. More often than not it goes as terribly as a parent teaching their teenager to drive. There’s too much ego and emotional baggage attached to have consistently good outcomes. (In fact, I have a belief that the ability to learn from or teach something to a person ceases once anyone has seen the other naked in any context.) In summary, find a local range that has qualified instructors (MIL/LEO, USCCA, or Rangemaster preferred. NRA doesn’t cut it for me and I am one) and preferably a rental section to try out multiple types and work from there. Lastly, especially for the wife, it doesn’t have to be all at once. You get much better long term results doing short, regular sessions than you do with long, all encompassing, one hit wonders. A date night range trip or private lesson followed by a dinner out every couple weeks goes a long way for a lot of people.

I think ARs are a great HD choice. Good capacity, accuracy, plentiful and affordable accessories and ammo. The light round and high velocity actually make them among the least likely to over penetrate barriers (they have a tendency to fragment). I choose the standard 5.56 ball round for consistency’s sake. The round I train with will have the exact performance as the one I’d use in real life. Plus its lower cost is a nice bonus, as is the previously mentioned .22 conversions. I recommend putting a white light, a sling, and a red dot on a Smith & Wesson M&P and calling it good I’m not a hunter, but I have friends who use 5.56 ARs to take deer, and they are commonly used for coyotes and boar as well. Unless there’s other things afoot, you have no reason to be concerned about the alphabet boys for having an AR.

Dm incoming

Like the others stated above, it’s not my preference, but there’s nothing particularly wrong with it. They are often more finicky than the .45 versions, particularly when it comes to finding magazines. Besides that you’ll have more weight, lower capacity and higher cost than other options. As a tool it’ll certainly work, just with generally less economical efficiency

To the OP, theres too many variables not mentioned to say with any finality, but at the end of the day it boils down to this: Insufficient placement wont work against a determined foe, regardless of caliber. An insufficient Caliber, though properly used, may still fail when a more capable caliber wouldn't. We do with that information what we will.

In gun circles, my first question is always: “Well who do you plan to talk to? And do they have a radio” if there’s not an immediate need for long range, then HF can wait on the mobile for now. I have a 50 Watt dual band Yeasu 7250 in my vehicle and another one in the house, and that can reach out a good bit across western TN. I would like an HF base eventually, but to me it’s not as pressing

Milling's major benefit is in the security of the mount, any marginal difference in finding the dot is well down the list. Cowitness actually is a detriment in Red Dot systems. The real solution is more time on the dot. Mike Ox has a good book/virtual training course called Red Dot Mastery that I would highly suggest. That said, the secret is the work, if you want to get the most out of the RDS

Gotcha, I apologize for misunderstanding your meaning. Its just something ive gotten into the habit of immediately addressing every time I see it.

I am normally very much a believer in context being king in self defense, but this highlighted portion is unequivocally, empirically, and measurably wrong. Can someone who is good at it beat someone in condition one who sucks, yes. But every single person has a faster and a more situationally resilient draw from condition one.