Jonnin

If its a backup only and to save your life, I would get a highcap 357 sig or 10mm and forget the 44 revolver unless you are very confident in your ability. I love my 44s but if I really and truly were trying to stop a bear from killing me, I would want more than a few shots as they have been known to take devestating wounds without stopping, it may die in half an hour but that wont do you a bit of good. 10mm is hard to find. 357 sig is not quite as hard to find. Glock is, I think, one of 2 that still make a 10mm gun and not many of those. The 357 has a good following in police duty and civillian carry, and you can find more guns for sale in the caliber and more ammo for sale in the stores.

Scopes are frustrating on a pistol: more than 2-3x is *very* difficult to hold steady enough to do much at longer ranges and overkill at short ranges. A 3x scope at 25-75 yards is pretty cool once you get used to it, but a good red dot is easier to use and more practical up close. I have a 3-7x scope on one of my pistols and its not usable at the higher powers unless bench rested, I keep it on 3x when standing up. One issue with red dots is the cheaper ones have such a big dot you cover the target entirely at longer ranges. At 50 yards the dot can cover a good 1.5 inch circle of your target or more... a scope does not do that. A high dollar red dot has a much smaller pinprick sized dot if you want to spend the $$. A low power scope is better than a cheap red dot at 25+ yards, a good red dot is better than a scope out to 50, and past 50 a scope is nice again if you can hold it steady enough. What exactly do you want to do? You could spend a lot of money on this stuff and end up just plinking at 20 yards.... are you looking for long range? Jagged hole groups? Knocking a beer can off the fence? Going to compete or just improve on your own? What you want to do is possible and you can spend a ton of money on it or hardly any at all, depending, but outlining your goals matter before you shell out. There is no sense in spending 1k on a gun, 300 on an optic, 300 more on a trigger job, unless you are pretty darn serious. A casual shooter can do wonders with a mark 3 and a $75 red dot and some decent ammo --- spending more from there requires a need for better gear, and that means your skill level has surpassed this introductory gear.

The blackhawk is the SA, redhawk is the double action, and you can't go wrong with either one. Ive shot my blackhawk since about 1990, many hundreds of rounds, and its still just as good as it ever was. Avoid the "bisley" models... you cannot find an alternate grip for those so its original style or nothing; I wish mine were normal so I could slap on a hogue style grip. The 41 mag is good but its one of those "where do I get ammo again" calibers, so if out hunting and you lost your box of ammo, you could be stuck whereas any store has at least something in 44 mag. Nothing at all wrong with a s&w either, but for hunting I would get a long barrel gun and if possible something with a mount in case you decide to scope it one day. I also love my desert eagle, but you would not want to spend that $$ for it and probably not the best hunting pistol. A 10mm may or may not stop a grizzly, its a pretty darn good cartridge if you can find one, but most of them have extremely poor triggers compared to a SA revolver (as do most autos). Im sure 10+ rounds of 10mm would stop any animal found in our country. Im sure that 5+ rounds of 44 will too. If you are worried about fighting a very powerful animal at short range, the SA revolver may not be the best pick, but if you want to pick off a deer at 100 yards with one, its the best choice. From there a quality DA with a couple of speedloaders is the best compromise choice.

If you are going to get a pump, consider that new kel tec with the high cap and slug/shot tubes so you can pick your ammo type for those stages, etc. I have not yet held one, but surely a few people have tried one by now so you should be able to find an online review. I have never seen a pump gun win a shotgun stage, though I have only done it for 1 year. It may not be a huge disadvantage, and its not going to jam, but there has to be a reason the pump guys are slower week after week. Im sure some pro shooter can jockey a pump in amazing ways, just like a pro revolver guy can make an average semi auto shooter look like a fool, but give an average shooter a pump or an auto, he is likely to do better with the auto from what I have seen. There is an iron man or something class where you use iron sights, pump shotgun, and other difficult to use gear, but that is another story, few shoot that class and fewer still do it regularly (sometimes a random person decides to do it once or twice a year for fun).

The longer barrel gives you extra velocity, which allows the weakish standard velocity target ammo to punch out a bit more distance. Serious target shooters use standard velocity to avoid the aerodynamic problems caused by crossing the sound barrier in flight, that can kick the round off target. The long barrel also gives more sight radius which helps accuracy with iron sights. There is no noticable effect on accuracy from just the barrel; put a red dot on both and they will both do equally well at pistol target ranges (50 yards or less). The long barrel adds a lot of balance problems; we got a 7 inch barrel buckmark and the barrrel weight is a serious problem for extended matches --- I cannot shoot 90 rounds with that gun over an event without major fatigue. Its the real steel barrel though, not an ultralight one --- you can buy some long barrels with a light composite material build and that would help. The choice is yours, but there is little to be gained from the longer barrel unless you are shooting at extended ranges, perhaps scoped and benchrested? If you are just shooting at short ranges (under 25 yards) a 5-6 inch barrel is perfect, and even out to 50 5-6 is still plenty, I would not move to a 7-10 unless you wanted 100 yards.

Heh bobby b, that was a well told story! A comment or 2 though ... a small dent in the bullets will not change the flight path of a 380 by much for the duration of the flight. It would have to fly hundreds of yards before the errors became noticable unless you have the worlds one and only 380 target pistol... which the kel tec certainly is NOT. I have worked around enough aerospace to absorb that much about aerodynamics, at least, so you can fire those dented rounds safely and accurately enough so long as it is only the little dent on the nose caused by missing the chamber during cycle. If the sides of the round are damaged, throw it away. Also, its not the round, there are large frame 380s (beretta cheetah, for example) that are quite nice shooters. Its these pocket pistols which are all competing for who can make the cheapest gun with the most plastic that are the problem. Again, I would point at the sig (which we did already) to say its not the size either --- compare the recoil of the sig (locked breech) to the others (blowback) and the triggers (1911 SA vs 1 inch heavy DAO) and, well, the low recoil light trigger gun does well. I have made a 1 inch 5 shot group at 10 yards with it, testing it for accuracy. I have been unable to limpwrist jam it, though it probably can be done. Its not the size, weight, caliber, or anything else that is causing your troubles. Its the design flaws combined with ultra cheap mass production that are causing your problems. I hope you have a reliable gun that you can carry, but if you are looking and have not given up on the 380, borrow one of those 238s to try before you give up entirely on pocket pistols. Even the 238s have had problems, sig has made several minor changes to clear them up and the latest generation seems much more stable. If you do not mind going up 1 size and weight category, I can tell you that makarovs are reliable and very accurate. They are much, much heavier, but that helps recoil quite a bit, and you can get them in 380 instead of the russian caliber if you like paying twice as much for your ammo. I am impressed at how much effort you put into your 380 to get it working, most would have given up long before. Hopefully you have or can find a replacement that you like and trust.

I think the same rules as hunting apply if you are on or near another person's house or land. Otherwise you have local laws such as "not inside the city limits" if you are in a larger town. In general you can shoot all you want on your own property so long as you do not 1) hit anything that is not on your property, 2) disturb your next door neighbor all day and all night with noise, and 3) fail to follow any local laws if you live in the city as I already said. The noisy neighbor thing is not against the law precisely but you do not want to be the guy in a noise dispute, the cops hate it, it makes everyone mad, and its generally just not a good thing.

My wife said "what a cute little gun" ... "can I have it" ... so we got 2 of them after I let her try mine out and she would not give it back. You never know, I was sort of expecting the same response "what did you need another one for" sort of comment.

that is helpful. There are what, 800 different black ants in the south? The ones that dig in the ground and make dirt mound nests are called fire ants, and are the most likely source of trouble. They sting the everlovin crap out of you if you step in the nests. The best for those seems to be the queen poision products --- the queen dies and the colony dies. The second best approach seems to be the all night bake --- pour a gallon of kerosene into the nest, light it off, problem solved. It will burn for over a day, so you must practice safe fire handling. Third best would be just smashing the nest flat every few hours for a few weeks. They do eventually give up and die or go away, but this only works if you just have one or 2 nests.

Heh there are blowhards in everything, 3 gun is no different. They are easier to spot and avoid in shooting sports, actually. Its really easy: they will first tell you how anyone can do great and that the sport is designed so that gear does not matter, then 5 seconds later will be telling you how to spend $2k on gear that you "really should consider buying". Even at the very casual club I go to, I have had people try to get me to buy stuff that I do not need, a "better" range bag, a mag loader device for my AR (because I don't have 30 min or so between stages to reload a magazine, I need to do it faster?!), and more. Go have fun, & if you want to take it serious, look at what people have and use and more important, watch if and how it helps them shoot faster or better or something. A lot of the junk is just that.... pricy junk that has no effect apart from looking more "pro" or "taticool" or "idiotic" depending on how you look at such things. A few of the items really make huge differences in peoples scores. Figure out which is which before you run off to buy any of it, and if you are not serious about the sport, most of the toys can be ignored.

The cops at the door usually do NOT LIKE to unload your gun. They may not say anything but I have been thanked for having it unloaded (they can tell I did this as I leave the magazine and +1 round in the car) and asking them, was told a lot of people bring loaded guns and they really wish folks would take a moment to unload at home or in the car or something. I would not take it to them loaded after talking to them about it.

I am all for it, once someone comes up with a 100% proven test that shows in advance (by at least 3 weeks) when a person is going to go nuts based totally off hearsay and random third party observations.

reblue takes more effort than popping out a bad spring or busted extractor or putting in a new magazine... I would not be too worried that it takes a bit longer to get that done.

Right, mine is NOT a competition master. I had never heard of that before, actually. Its was a used, standard 1100 designed for bird hunting, with a couple of modifications. Its really just a plastic A5 with a big mag tube and a soft recoil pad -- I cannot tell much difference at all in it vs my browning. You can call it junk if you want, the price/value qualifies it, but it is reliable all day long.

Its not that much more. 400 -500 will get you one if you keep a weather eye peeled for a deal. Pass on the 500-700s and wait it out, its worth it. Or get a makarov for @200 - 300, a better gun than most and only a tiny bit bigger, and shoots cheaper ammo to boot.

I have the sig p238. Its more expensive, but I would not trade it for one of each of the other brands; its that much better. The locked breech against the blowback reduces its recoil over the other designs, and the 1911 trigger system makes it a joy to shoot instead of difficult. A few have reported issues with them but we have 2, his and hers, and they have happily put 500 s&b, 2000 handloads, and a couple of boxes of critical defense downrange without any real trouble. Mine had a minor issue out of the box, it would lock open when not empty due to some bullet designs hitting the slide stop in the mag, but that was cured by my gunsmith and it has not had a hiccup since. The next best 380 after the sig is much larger, a makarov, walther all metal classic ppk, or a bersa would be my picks. The micro DAO blowbacks are not just not up to par with any of those. *** I have not tried a khar and have no opinion of them, but I suspect its in the dao blowback category, a notch above the cheap ones but still in that pack.

Thumb drives are not a bad choice, they are getting huge and you can fit what, 32 gigs on a fairly cheap one? It may take 10 of them for a big drive, but they do not take up much space or cost much and I have yet to see one fail, my first one still works (128 MB from way way back).

kel tec has good service -- rebuilt my p-40 from the ground up and has helped me with questions on my plr. I sold the p-40 but it worked, I just do not like DAO triggers. All that aside, in the process I found the KTOG and recommend you ask there as well. There are sections on things you can do to fix it yourself, as well as experts who can help. KTOG.Org - Kel-Tec Owners Group is the site. Return to battery is an odd term left over from very old military guns (big stuff, I think, like ship's guns?) but it means the round get pushed into the barrel properly and fully. Most small arms will not fire out of battery -- this is dangerous as the brass can rupture and stuff, so safetys prevent it. Try a second magazine and try storing your mag with 6 in it for a couple of weeks, and you might also try cleaning the magazine (take it apart) and checking the lips (top of the mag that the bullets slide against as they are removed) for rough spots or abnormal shape/feel/etc. I dunno about the sticky slide, but there is something in this gun called the frankenbolt that gets loose and causes all sorts of odd problems and this sounds like a good case of needing to check that bolt and locktite it back in place if its loose.

the px4 puts a lot of firepower in a smallish package in a DA platform, making it fill a nearly empty space in the market (most guns that small are either lesser calibers, DAO, or strikers). Its not a big enough market niche though! The nano is going to be a hot item, it will be this year's version of the lc9 and I predict it will sell by the boatload. I like berettas but if they are going to keep going down the yet another black plastic pistol path I will be disappointed. Their next one needs to be a DA or SA metal & wood offering.

I thought it was going to be the savage gun company, forgot all about the talk show guy!

yep, I wish they offered more styles and designs so I could buy more from them. I have never had to call them on anything but their quality is great and their reputation is well deserved.

there are places where you can have someone pull the data off the platters, or there used to be, but it is extremely expensive. Or you can try to do it yourself by buying an identical unit, taking them apart, and swapping just the media disks into the new unit. This will NOT LAST -- the dust and such in the unit after opening it will ruin it fast, but you may recover some data that way. It depends on how valuale the data was vs how much you want to spend, but most folks just throw the drive away & learn to back things up.

davidson's seems to always have something that is just a little different, slightly different stock, grip, sights, or whatever, from everyone else. Not a bad thing, just strange that they are the only ones with the oddball variations. A lot of them are listed as "davidson's exclusive" so maybe they special order them in an alternative setup just to be able to put that label on em? They seem to be a good company, whatever they are doing, good warrenty on anything they sell, NQA supposedly.

There are also gimmicky ammo labels, for example a couple of brands try to push +p 380 ammo which there is no official word on. Take buffalo bore for example, they push a +p makarov ammo. Well, it turns out their ammo is exactly the same as what was sold in the USA about 10 or 15 years ago as defensive makarov ammo: 90 or 95 grains at 1200 fps. Most other vendors have toned down theirs to 1000 fps so relatively, the buffalo bore is higher pressure, but it is still inside the old limits and not excessive pressure ammo. Its just a gimmick to sell the stuff, and while it is good stuff, I am not sure I approve of this marketing tactic.

Sorry, I will try to get a pic of it later. The TN tax system crashed again (every year around this time it becomes unstable as people buy christmas guns) so it took all day sat to buy it and I didnt get to it sunday either. You may have to wait until I unwrap it officially!