Jonnin

Try different ammo (not hollow points), and compress your mag springs, store them loaded for a week or two first. Clean and lube the pistol, and look for any excessive burrs or scratching on the moving parts. If you find anything, try the smith if you are not into polishing stuff yourself. Don't be afraid to polish off a burr on the slide or the ramp yourself though, it takes time but its easy to do and a lot of info online on what to use and how to do it -- just be sure to understand the difference between the words "polish" and "grind" before you go at it! Not closing fully on a round means something is either tight and unlubed or something is binding up (burr, possibly, though it could be a badly fitted piece which will require a smith). Lube the front of the barrel that slides thru the bushing and the exposed part of the barrel seen thru the ejection port as well as the usual areas (slide rails, etc). Could be the chamber needs a polish which is doable yourself but I prefer a smith for that one.

If you buy it off the internet, you will be stuck with a hefty fee. It is best to buy it at a local shop; I use sportsman's warehouse, there should be one of those in nashville somewhere, and a couple of local shops, which I am sure you also have. How is to buy in bulk, as much as you can afford. Research your loads for all your calibers so you can select a powder or three that work for everything. Primers are just going to be the size you need ... though you can mix and match them if careful, its best to just use what goes with the caliber. For example, you can use magnum primers in standard rounds, if you use a little less powder it will even out. I have crafted decent plinker loads for several of my rifle calibers with 2230 powder, for example, its not the best for all those calibers but its good enough for light target loads in them. If I used the best powder for each one, I would have to buy at least 3 different powders in smaller containers, so my costs would be more. Its a tradeoff between costs and bulk savings. Handguns are more forgiving, one powder will work in most of the midrange calibers and only the really small calibers or big magnums require something different.

grats!

The gun is rated for it. Its not a 223 only gun. The only thing they say not to do is shoot steel ammo in it. From the kel-tec site: The PLR-16 is a gas operated, semi-automatic pistol chambered in 5.56 mm NATO caliber.

I also have the plr, its good to about 200 yards and has the velocity to tumble according to the ballistics I have found, barely, its borderline, though it may do better with actual 556 instead of 223s. Not sure. Its fun to shoot, gentle, but heavy and difficult to control as a conventional 2h pistol grip. I grab the mag as a forend grip and that does ok, or shoot it rested like a rifle, which is sorta pointless but the gun can do it. Its exceptionally loud for those to the side of you, and spits too much fire to shoot at night without a good flash hider. Ive carried it in my car but thats as far as I have taken carrying it. All in all a fun gun, probably ok for small game and target shooting, probably not the best self defense gun ever made, it would be great in some odd situations but not typical ones, IMO.

My pistol scope is adjustable up to 7x power with a decent sized optic, takes me out to 200 yards roughly. But it was pricy, about $300 if memory serves. TN wanted cheap so that approach is limited as you noted to smaller, weaker pistol scopes. The larger diameter and power scopes cost more at an alarming rate, while rifle scopes can be had in decent powers for fairly cheap prices. I would think the trouble with keeping lined up on a deer would be the 20 pound rifle, not the scope setup ...

I look, but rarely see anything. I spot a lot of folks that I suspect have a weapon, but most are pretty good about hiding it, if they have one.

This has another advantage. Loading equipment, at least mine, has its margins of error in things like volume, not weight. So when loading a round, I am not off by 1/10 a grain of powder, I am off by some fraction of a CC. If I use a powder that nearly fills the case, the small margin of error is reduced and the loads are more consistent. A powder that fills over 50% of the case volume prevents double charges (it will overflow), and a variety of other issues while making your loads that much more consistent with simple equipment, its a win-win approach though for large rifle rounds it can add a few cents to each round in extra powder. BigK: Without a crimp, revolvers can get a nasty stuck bullet problem. The inertia of the recoil can pull the rounds out the case, then the cylinder won't turn, and it can be a major ordeal to get that straightened out in some firearms... this is more of a problem for heavy recoil guns, of course, 357, 44, etc are bad about it. I dont crimp my 44s for my auto and do for the revolver; the mag in the auto prevents the bullet pulling and that gun soaks more of the recoil, so its no problem to do it that way. After getting my single action revolver jammed up once, I won't make that mistake again.

22s are the worst for misfires of any ammo I know of... for that reason alone I usually recommend not using as a carry weapon. If she insists, maybe look at the walther 22, which is a good trainer for a larger gun, or maybe the little beretta tip up 22, both are ok for carry I suppose. I would try to convince her to go with a 380 or 9x18 in a medium frame pistol, bersa thunder size or so, to bypass the misfire issue, but thats just my opinion.

Oh, in that case, I don't know that its much of a change as far as the raw caliber goes. Both do about the same things at about the same ranges for your stated uses. It would boil down to which firearm you like best, really, far more than the caliber.

There is nothing wrong with it. There are some 10 or so calibers (some obsolete more or less) that are as good or better than the 308, this is one of them. 308 is sort of in style right now, and gets a lot of recommendations over and above its capability. A 30-06 is just as good, if not better, my 7.65 arg is just as good, and so on. If you like your 6.5, and it can do what you need (looks like it can to me, but I am not real familiar with this specific caliber), then use the 6.5 and enjoy it.

Again, a small gun won't be noticed by yahoos. My wife and I carry the small sig 380s and twice we have been searched by rent-a-guard types who missed the guns entirely (at, I will add, a place that was not posted so the guns were legal anyway). The only thing that is going to spot a small pocket pistol is a metal detector or x-ray type machine. The naked eye can see you have something in your pocket, but not what it is, as pocket holsters are designed to obscure the outline (many of them anyway). This is the age of the cellphone and gadgets: the untrained will assume that whatever is in your pocket is harmless, and due to the small size, the last thing they will think is "gun". If you google it, you can find the dozen or so ways that folks with a gun mess up. Mostly, that means touching the gun to make sure it is covered, still there, etc, turning your body away from whoever is approaching, wearing totally goofy clothing such as a coat in the heat, or really baggy clothes, etc, walking/moving/sitting funny due to uncomfortable gun, and wearing a belt/etc because a heavy gun pulls your pants down. To avoid being noticed, you have to totally overcome your desire to check on the weapon, which means wearing it and practice enough to be assured that it is where you left it and does not need your attention.It takes time to get there. But everytime you touch the gun, make a mental note to stop doing that. Every time you look at it, or turn it away from someone, make a note. It gets easier in a few months. I apologise but the forums keep removing my paragraph breaks for some reason.

I think we found a piece of Obama's "under the radar" gun control, along with the UN resolutions. Wonder what else he has in the works that we don't know about yet...

If you are experiencing hatred, thats all the more reason to have a pistol on you and well concealed. I carry my guns in my pockets; a small pistol can fit behind a thin wallet and be 100% invisible and give you 5-10 shots of 380 or 9mm, even a couple of small .40 calibers out there and a few other odds and ends. There are a LOT of small guns, almost anything smaller than 6, 6.5 inches long can vanish on your person with minimal effort. You can also learn to conceal a much larger gun but that takes careful wardrobe selection and a lot of work to find the holster, etc that work for you.

why does the .45 have what appears to be a hole in the case?

My smith recommended using a pistol scope with that sight replacement rail, said the long eye relief would be about right. I have not yet gone there but am headed in that direction. There are also a couple of other no-drill options. These guys have one of the best I have seen (in pictures): SMA Scope Mounts Home Page I would try to avoid bending the bolt if possible. I certainly will not be bending mine.

Theres a 9mm largo but I dont remember the weapon(s) it is used for.

Garbage or not, I keep thinking of the now rather long and often revived thread here "what is your adult beverage tonight" or whatever the exact title is... The story is junk, plenty of hard drinking folks out there that don't have a gun. Plenty that do. There is no correlation. Most of the gun owners I know are not risk takers at all, and drink but little if at all, which also means nothing. Like anyone else I tend to hang with people with similar lifestyles and I was tired of booze (and drunks!) by the time I got out of college, so I hang with folks that drink very little, if any. All I can say is there are plenty of gun owners that are quite sober -- what % of them that may be, I have no idea.

An empty soda can (used, that is) filled with water will explode with most major calibers without wasting soda. A 9mm will blow the can in half, a 44 will make 3-4 fragments. No need to waste soda unless you only have a .22 or something puny. Anything you can make pressure in is better. fill a 2 liter with COLD water, cap it solid, put it out in the sun for an hour, and it will stretch tight as a drum and blow apart dramatically with a decent energy slug, again 9mm and up are pretty cool to watch. The open top cans require a harder hit as the water has a way to go, but since it goes straight up, its still cool to watch.

Well, you see, most of the rest of the world is on the metric system so measure of caliber in fractions of an inch wouldnt make a lot of sense to anyone outside the USA. Therefore they use mm instead in many other countries. Thats really the main reason.

That s&b Br.c is absolutely a 380, you can use it.

if its a makarov it will usually say 9mm M, 9x18, or 9mm Mak on the stamp, but not always. Be aware that reloaders often cut down 9x19 to 9x18 so you occasionally find a "funny short luger" because its a 9mm headstamp.Its easy to tell 380 from mak. 380 brass is much, much thinner and lighter. Mak is as thick and heavy as a regular 9mm case. Or you can measure it. They are a full mm apart so even a roughly treated case should be close to its desired length. You cannot load a 9x18 as 9x17 (380), the bullet seating is all wrong and it probably will not chamber etc, and the mak is at least .1 if not .2 mm wider so the bullet will not seat well without a very heavy crimp... all the way around it would be a poor fit and for "emergency use only", if that.

I wouldnt be. Thats a long range to hit well with an unfamiliar weapon; its a pretty good distance even for a target pistol that you have shot a fair amount.

maybe. Give it a try before you decide... old brass is harder to clean. Again, try to wipe a case or 2 off, see how hard it is, then decide. "for years" may mean its corroded, which needs to be polished pretty well as it can be rather sticky or rough. You will figure it out if you can or cannot skip a tumbler pretty quickly =)

If your brass was clean, new ammo and it went from the revolver into your bag for re-use, you can probably hand clean it just fine with, say, gun solvent (hoppes etc) on a paper towel. 44s at least often get 1/2 black on the outside with soot, you want to wipe that off but its not too hard to accomplish that. It does not have to be shiny new polished but you dont want any crud to get into your dies or gun. Take a look at your spent brass, or wipe one off by hand to see if you want to do that or not. I think it would be a lot of trouble unless you do not shoot many rounds. Where the tumbler shines the most (haha) is range pickup brass, which I grab a fair amount of. If you decide to reload some 9x18 from 9x19 for example, you may find yourself picking up nasty 9x19s and they are too small to hand clean and too dirty to not clean somehow. Youll want a tumbler for sure if you start making a lot of ammo. For 20 rounds of 44 here and there in a 6 gun, its your call.