SamZzz

I grew up in the sticks and my dad was a hunter. I'd gone "hunting" with him a few times (mostly just walking through the woods) but never fired anything more than a pellet gun or maybe a .22 rifle. The hubby had purchased a Colt .380 at one time and told me I needed to learn how to use it. I told him I had no need to and before he could press the issue further we ended up selling it due to money constraints. Fast forward a few years... hubby is a truck driver.. gone weeks at a time. He keeps saying we need a gun at the house in case someone tries anything. I am satisfied that my German shepherd will suffice. October of last year, someone broke into our garage and stole a trailer, two four-wheelers and a welder. Hubby was the one who noticed it when he came home off the road. A few weeks later, he picked up a 9mm Makarov and we take it to the range to try it out. He fires off a clip then reloads it and hands it to me. "I'm not saying you have to carry it, but at least learn how to shoot it in case someone tries to break in on you." Two shots into that clip I turned around with the biggest grin on my face... don't know what it is, but I was hooked! For Valentine's Day he bought me a Walther P22 (we'd spent 3 months going to every gun shop in the area and just holding and playing with different pistols). I told him I still didn't need a carry gun, but I'd love to have something to target shoot with that wouldn't require expensive ammo. Two weeks after I got my P22, be bought a Sig Mosquito and a cheap Hi-Point 9mm and we headed over to take our HCP class. I have my permit and I have taken "Wally" out shopping once. I'll work my way up to something with some more "punch" eventually, but in the meantime I've run enough rounds through that P22 to be dangerously accurate and as many people can attest... alot of times it just takes someone SEEING you have a gun and aren't afraid to use it to deescalate the situation.

heh.. No worries about that. I wasn't gonna say a WORD! I'm just glad they aren't posted correctly since I still occasionally have to hit up mall stores and the one closest to the house has freakin' signs posted as you enter the parking lot so I can't even drive into the lot, much less go inside. :/ Psst.. OS.. I'm not a 'He' .. although since it they no longer have the little pink/blue silhouettes under our names I guess I'll let you get away with it... this time.

Yeah, I know it was an old thread... but I since I came here looking for info on the Mall's postings (or lack thereof) and found it outdated, I thought I'd update. The OP mentioned the management company told him it was posted but he didn't see the signs... Just thought I'd mention what WAS there in place of a TCA sign... in case anybody else was interested. Guess not..

FYI: The "posting" at West Town Mall is a line on the big blue & white sign on the wall as you walk in the door entitled "CODE OF CONDUCT". Item #6 of 15 states "No weapons, including but not limited to firearms, knives, or any other object(s) that may be used in any way to inflict bodily injury on another person.".. Leaves ALOT open to interpretation there.. as pretty much anything can be used to inflict bodily injury if used properly. That being said.. Yeah.. I walked around the mall today.. the day of the Sales Tax holiday with the mall literally PACKED with people and cops and was never approached. I had my Walther tucked neatly into the waistband of my shorts and covered with a T-shirt. Today was my first "outing" with Walther.. I started with the customary Wal-Mart walk and progressed from there.

I vote "to stop the threat". When I took the HCP class my instructor explained the difference as it would matter from a legal standpoint. If I am pulling my weapon to "kill" the BG I'm committing murder. If I pull my weapon to "eliminate the threat" I'm defending myself. Although the outcome may be the same, the wording can make all the difference on the witness stand.

Ehh.. don't sweat it. Maybe it'll come tomorrow. Just relax, grab some snacks and a cold drink and it'll be here before you know it.

When I turned in my application on 4/13 the guy at the DMV said it would take 4 months. LOL.. way to not get my hopes up! I went home that night and registered on the TAPS website to get my prints and there was the following notice: So I was hoping I'd gotten mine in soon enough. Apprears I did since my permit came today. 2 1/2 weeks since I submitted by prints. I wonder though if folks who submitted at the end of April/beginning of May might be delayed a bit though. There are ALOT of temporary census workers and they DO all have to submit to printing/background checks soooo... Good luck!

Yeah. They have definitely gotten their collective rear-ends in gear lately. I filled out my application on 4/13/2010. Went 3 days later to get fingerprinted (4/16, Friday). My permit came in the mail today 5/5/10! 2 1/2 weeks from the time I stuck my fingers on a piece of glass! Woohoo!! I was actually a bit concerned because when I went online to register for my fingerprints there was a big notice about how they would soon be postponing background checks due to the large amount of census worker background checks that would be processed in the coming weeks. I was hoping I got mine in quick enough to not get caught up in that backlog... looks like I made it!

When the hubby and I took ours we had this older lady (80ish) taking it. She was using a range pistol since her and her hubby hadn't brought enough ammo to both qualify with their ANCIENT revolver. Found out later the ammo they brought for it was as old as the gun itself! Anyway.. they had Ruger MKIIs and cheap .22lr ammo so the gun kept giving her fits. But even worse... she was one of those "hold the gun in her hand while turning to ask for help" types! The instructor had his wife stand with her and help her load/unload the gun. Her target looked like it'd been shot with a shotgun at long range with several outside the black and..... you guessed it... SHE PASSED! I asked the instructor's wife about it after that group was done qualifying (it took them over an hour with only 6 people shooting) and she said unfortunately they can't fail someone as long as they get the required number of shots in the black. If they can shoot the fun and hit the target, they pass... end of story. So yeah.. I don't see anyone actually failing the range test.. if you do.. you don't need to be carrying. Seriously. One word of advice.. save yourself some time and trouble and take a gun that'll hold AT LEAST 6 rounds. We had a girl qualify with a 5-shot revolver.. She knew that reloading process inside and out by the time she was done with her test! :reload: bang, bang, bang, bang, bang :load one round: bang :reload: ...

That's odd. Just turned in my application today.. checked the website before I went because the class instructor told us no checks or cards. It confirmed Cash, Money Order, or Certified Check only. The application states the same.

Ditto on Farnworth Firearms in Vonore. Nice people to deal with, good prices on their new stock, range time is the cheapest we've found. They only charge $60 for the HCP class and all you have to bring is your gun and 50 rounds of ammo. Avoid the store between noon and 1pm on Saturday though because if they are having a class, that's when they break for lunch and it gets busy fast with people buying ammo at the last minute for class. The store itself resembles a garage sale or flea market booth, not the most organized but fun to browse through and they had the largest stock of 9x18 Makarov ammo we'd found anywhere! (That stuff is about impossible to find short of internet or gun shows, FF always had several boxes) Gunny's is good in a pinch for range time. They occasionally run promotions like the valentines weekend thing were ladies shot free and their men were half price. As a female, I liked seeing they had a female employee who really seemed to have a good knowledge of what she was selling. She gave me some suggestions on good target and carry pistols (from a woman's point of view). But they are higher on their gun prices. Usually between Benton's and Farnsworths. Benton Shooter's Supply.. like Bass Pro Shops for gun lovers. They have alot of fun stuff to look at and will let you touch anything in the cases. They actually walked off while I was holding two of their handguns.. that was an awkward feeling. But they are also the highest priced of the bunch and it's a long drive. CCA.. We went, we looked, we were ignored. Prices about the same as Gunny's, if not a bit higher. They seem to have a rather large range (especially compared to Farnsworth's 6 stalls) but we never stepped foot inside.. nobody seemed to want to help us and there was a crowd of people standing around clogging up the counter either waiting to be waited on or just bs'ing. Was hard to tell. Never got to so much as TOUCH a gun there much less get any info on them. Won't be back. Loudon County Sportsman - Lenoir City - another one of those "mom and pop" style gunshops. Very friendly owner, no range but had prices right in line with Farnsworth (aka cheaper than the bigger guys). Haven't been to Frontier (we were going to head that way but called them first to check a couple prices and decided it wasn't worth the extra drive to pay more than we could locally. Where is Bill's?

Yeah. The mag release is one of my favorite features on the Walthers as well. I played around with a Ruger MKIII and kept ejecting the mag when working the "slide" on it. With the Walther, there's no button to hit while doing other things, yet it's handy enough to still be able to eject with one hand/finger.

That's when YOU.. the person he obviously feels is dominant over him and not a threat needs to put him on the ground. Instantly and without hesitation. And I don't mean with a bullet. My Shepherd has done that ONE time. She growled at my sister-in-law when I invited her into the house. Sasha (my Shepherd) felt she was intruding and growled her warning. I rolled Sasha right then and there. Sis-in-law can walk in the house now with nothing more than a few barks until the door is opened and she sees who is there. The "no good reason whatsoever" was a perfect reason for him. He was protecting what was his.. you. By letting him get away with it, you told him that was the right thing to do.

Yeah, I think trying to shoot the dog would have been a bad choice in this situation. Don't know that I would ever try to shoot at a dog attacking me, but I have given one a shot of pepper spray in the muzzle.. they don't care too much for that, by the way.

Cool. I love the way my P22 feels in my hand.. perfect size. Most of the other "Bigger" guns I tried out just didn't feel that .. uhh.. secure? Like I could drop it at any time. I'll definitely have to give the PK380 and the P99 a look-see. And no problem on the pic help, just glad I could help with something around here,, being new and all.

Close. Easiest way to do it from photobucket is to Navigate to pic you want to post Roll mouse over pic so that the menu bar appears at the top of pic Roll over "Share" on that menu and choose "Post to Website" Click "Get Link Code" tab Copy the link under "IMG for bulletin boards & forums" - Full Size Paste into thread on TGO **I like the looks of this thing. Looks alot like my p22 but would pack a bigger bang. Hmm.. this may be the "step-up" I make down the road. Have you shot the p22 before? Is it a similar feel as far as size, grip, etc??

Thanks for the welcome and the info. Not familiar with Norris.. Will have to look that one up. Know all about the gun shows at the Expo Center. The show in February is where hubby picked up his Sig Mosquito and I was finally able to locate a second mag for my Walther. Looked at alot of stuff there... way too easy to go broke in that place! Walked out with the Sig, an extra mag for both my P22 and his Sig, a box of 9x18 hollow points, a box of 9mm HP and a box of 500 CCI Blazers for the .22s. Had to wipe the drool off hubby's chin after he picked up a DE .50 (darn video games, too much SOCOM ) Although I wouldn't mind going back and picking up some more ammo. Hubby traded the Makarov for a 12-gauge last time he was home so we've got a gun in the cabinet with nothing to shoot out of it! Tragedy!

Hey tyguy! Another GSD owner in Maryville!? Cool! I agree though. The first time we went to Gunny's it was $15/$7.50 (not sure on the second one but the first was $15). Went back over Valentine's Day weekend and noticed the prices had gone up. At least I got to shoot free that day, and they did give hubby the discounted second shooter price instead of charging him full price. I really like the staff there, but it's getting too expensive. Thinking next time we may hop down to Vonore. Hubby and I took our HCP class down there at Farnsworths (they charge $60 compared to $85 @ Gunny's). Their range is smaller (only 6 stalls) but they only charge $5 for 30 minutes with 1 free target. Most of the folks I've talked to that shoot there say they never actually time you while your in there, so they're never charged more than the $5! I'd actually like to find a nice outdoor range that'll let us shoot our pistols and rifles once the weather warms up.. know of any in the area?

Welcome and good luck on the house!

Greetings Johnny (and wife!)..

Well hey there neighbor! No, I didn't know about that link. Very interesting stuff! Downloaded the PDF and will certainly give it a look through. I did notice the pistol in the photos was about 5 years older than mine. Wonder if anything (other than the mag design) has changed since then. I saw somewhere that the magazines used to be bad for not feeding correctly but that changed in later models. So far I've run 350 rounds through mine since I got it on Valentine's weekend and the only problem I had was one empty that didn't eject all the way and the slide caught it. So far I'm very happy with my little friend. nj, Jess, Al.. where do you all go to shoot around here? We've been to Gunny's a couple times and shot at Farnsworth down in Vonore for our HCP class. I've been looking for an outdoor range since a friend of mine wants to try it out but has a newborn and doesn't want to take her into a loud, smoky room just yet. I'm thinking a nice outdoor range would be so much nicer once the weather warms up but haven't really found anything close by. Saw something about one out in the Halls Crossroads area but could have swore there was one in Blount County??

Nothing wrong with being a little ... I think of it as a hobby myself! That Kel Tec does look interesting... and 30 rounds without a reload! Woo! The P22 mags are easy to reload and I have two currently (plan on getting another or two). I've gotten quite good with swapping the mags out (got lots of practice during the HCP test shooting 6 rounds out of my 10 round mags!). I plan on participating more. Assuming I have something to contribute. I'm still learning all the different rules and don't actually have my permit yet. I'm just a newbie I guess.

Hi guys and gals! I've been lurking around here for a while and figured I'd go ahead and join in since I've now started the process of getting my permit. Hubby and I took the HCP class last Saturday and we'll be headed to the DMV next time he's in to begin the looong wait. He's been talking for years about getting his permit and dropping hints that I should get one as well, but I never really was interested until recently. He's a truck driver and that leaves me home alone two-three weeks at a time. Although I have a wonderful 3 year old German Shepherd who does a lovely job of being a burglar alarm, car security system and personal defense system when she's around... she can't be with me all the time. The hubby bought a 9mm Makarov pistol in November (just cause) and we went to the range to fire it. :D:D:D Mama liked. Something about putting some holes in paper people just brought a smile to my face and now I want to go shooting ALL THE TIME! Hubby bought me a Walther P22 for valentines day! And I became a gun owner for the first time in my life. He now has a Sig Mosquito and we take those two to the range to play. He traded the Makarov. It wasn't as reliable as he'd hoped and I had a hard time working the slide on it. For a bigger gun we do have a Hi-Point C9 which stays at home. I don't know if I'll get something different for an actual carry gun or just stick with my P22 since I'm so comfortable with it. I know people say a .22 isn't a good carry option, but I'd rather be able to fire 10 rounds quickly and accurately then have to fumble with a gun that isn't as easy for me to use and end up missing and hitting something or SOMEONE I didn't want to. So anyway.. yeah.. I've rambled.. But that's my story! Hi from Maryville!

I could understand his hesitation since the state website says you cannot carry until you receive your new permit. Handgun Carry Permit Frequently Asked Questions I guess this is why they say you CAN renew up to 6 months before it expires.. probably should read "you BETTER" renew 6 months before it expires.