Jonnin

18 to buy guns, 18 to own a handgun, any age may own a rifle/shotgun given as a gift. This can be found most easily at a nasty anti gun site, might as well use their effort for references: http://www.lcav.org/states/Tennessee_State_Law_Summary.pdf#page=7 and review Legal Community Against Violence Its probably somewhere on the tn.gov site, but I couldnt find it in a hurry, their site is awful.

Thanks guys. Looking at picking the empties up with a magnet was all, sounds like it will do.

Are all shotgun shells magnetic near the primer? I am going to google this as well but may or may not get much of an answer so I thought I would ask some experts too. Thanks! -----Several sites said they all are. Hooray.

I can think of no place better in my area than a lap around the national cemetary here in chattanooga, where vets since at least the civil war have been buried.

Great read. I do have a concern about increasing the power of the mental health folks to take up guns, though. All it would take is one anti-gun shrink to start claiming that all gun owners are unstable to create a form of gun control. And most shrinks I know (few enough as it is) are liberals who have spent a large amount of time in very liberal schooling soaking up the agenda that such places put forth. Unpleasent thought for the day, I guess, but disarming folks due to "mental illness" is a slippery slope.

If you can find a used one, kel-tec's p-40 is pretty small. Been out of production for a while now so its hit or miss, but you can still find them in pretty good condition for under $300 if you keep an eye open. When I went looking, the one I picked was probably too fat for you (beretta PX4 subcompact) and the runner up may be worth a look (the CZ RAMI .40).

.45 recoil is funny, folks describe it as a push rather than a jerk, while 9mm is a single instant jerk of significant force. The magazine can be related to the ability to stay open on the last round. It may not properly hit the tab to raise the slide stop. Check that out before swapping springs or whatnot, maybe try another mag if you have a spare. Most 1911 grip safetys seem to take almost no force. A few models take more than others but most, simply holding the gun is sufficient, no squeeze. Perhaps this can be fixed on the 9mm by a smith, you should not have to squeeze it proactively and that action (squeeze the grip) can mess up accuracy. The beretta 92 has some of the least recoil in 9mm that I have ever shot. Its the same old story, the heavy, big guns have less recoil. A rough 9mm is a plastic subcompact, those jump around bad in my hands esp. if 1h shooting. I really enjoy my old beretta 92, forget when I got it but it predates the clinton ban by a number of years. Definately some interesting comments. I am going to seek out a 9mm 1911 this year, as 45 is a bit pricy to shoot day in and day out. I sort of expect to see a number of not-45 1911 styles this year, with the 100 year circus, so if one comes out that I like, I will be all over it. I plan to look at that PT1911 later, when I have some cash, and appreciate the comments on it.

My wife is also a bit weak in the hands. We tried a lot of different things to find her the right gun, and we have a winner now. She absolutely loves her sig p238. Its tiny, easy to conceal carry, and the slide is easy to rack. It has a 1911 design and seems to have far less recoil than most of the tiny 380s (some of them are rather stout). Its very accurate for a tiny pistol. The biggest downside to the thing is the price, at over $500 its a bit steep for a 380. ALso, since its 1911 style, cocked & locked means no tough DAO trigger pull or fumble with the hammer during an attack: you just pull it, thumb the safety and shoot, and the light SAO trigger is managable by those with weak hands. I highly recommend trying this gun out for a test drive. If the sig is too small, you might consider a makarov or larger, heavier 380 in that same general platform (surplus maks, bersa, walther, for example make larger 380s ). These will have a heavier slide, but the larger grip is better for 2h style (the sig is really a 1h gun, its so small) and the heavy frames reduce the recoil a bit. They have decent triggers though the first shot in DA mode can be rough on some models. The benefit here is that mak ammo is far cheaper than 380, and the guns are also quite cheap. The downside is, lot of places won't have mak ammo, online is your friend. Yet another option is a beretta .32 tip up barrel, which avoids racking the slide entirely: you never have to muscle these guns. They are small and have a bit of recoil, though. Remember, self defense and range shooting are different: all that matters is if she can handle a few shots of recoil heavy defense, not if she can shoot out 2 boxes with it on the range without any hand fatigue... From there, you start to move up into the 9mm platform, which has billions of styles and shapes and sizes to try. These vary from stout recoil to gentle giants, but all of the slides will be much more difficult than the above smaller calibers. Or, if a slide is a problem nut a bit of recoil is not, a revolver gets rid of the slide problem. Those are my starter suggestions. But a 40 is a LONG WAY from a .22. There are a world of guns in between these calibers, and she may find something she can enjoy in one of them.

Welcome! For target shooting .22s the browning buckmarks and ruger Mark II and IIIs are excellent. A used ruger is great: they cost less and the guns are all but indestructible, you cannot wear one out so if it is not abused it should be fine. Look for the ones with a thick, long barrel. Browning is making their .22 on the 1911 frame this year (100 year hoopla stuff) and those will *probably* be very good as well (unknown at this time). A good 5 inch barreled revolver is also a good choice for .22 if you like that instead, mine was a S&W but many brands are quite good, ask around as I am not much of a revolver person (all mine are very old).

Fair is one of those things that means different things to different people. To some, its unfair that a few folks have high paying jobs. To others, its unfair that some folks live off the govt. If you can make more by quitting your job than having it, then quit --- that makes sense twice over (once for getting paid more, and once for the free time). If not, be glad for what you have, many folks cannot find a decent job, or are having to work outside their field/skill set/etc. A few people are abusing the system. A lot more are really trying and there is nothing suitable to be had. Sure, an engineer can scrub toilets at a gas station and have "an income", or he can keep looking for something useful while on unemployment. If forced into a min wage job, he might tell you that something is not "fair"... I dislike government handouts, but I also dislike a government that is preventing recovery and tampering with the stock market. This admistration does nothing to encourage business to grow and hire, and the bailouts mess with stock values (now, if you invest, you must guess which company will be allowed to go bankrupt and which will be bailed out!). You have bama attacking the leaders of big business, preventing them from making money, what is their motivation to work hard to grow the company and hire people if they cannot earn the bonus for doing this, but still suffer the risks if their decisions go wrong. To sum it all up: its a mess. You are correct, its not cool that 20% of america is living off handouts. But a fair number of those people would take a good job if they could get one. Not all of them, some people are mooches, but for the most part people want the american dream of a job with decent pay, a decent lifestyle, and a chance to do better.

There is an effect caused by optics, but its not the sight picture. You can shoot with your eye right up on the rear sight and make a proper picture, the trouble is that as you get closer, the more you can move the gun to still be aligned on the target. By getting closer, the front and back sights appear to be much larger, so now you are aligning large objects and the center of the sights is very fat, which creates more room for errors caused by being "aligned" with the target but, in reality, not "dead center aligned". IE the sights line up but now the center of the front sight is 3 times wider so small errors are introduced that make your shooting much worse if you get that close.

I have killed 2 in the last 25 years, 3 if you count an accidental, all copperheads. The accident was my window as a teen, I had crank out/sideways windows and he got scissored in the works, never knew it was there. Never bothered a rattler, though I have seen a couple. Its not something I worry about much, but if I encounter a mean animal, I can and will deal with it.

I stopped because they started asking more and more nosey, unrelated questions. The last one I saw asked why you had the gun, where you live, what else you own, and many other unacceptable things. Could be market research, could be something else, my paranoia kicked in though.

Do you have a gun with a laser on it? I have found that a close target with a laser, even dry-fire, lets you see the effects of your stance/grip/etc to quickly spot the problem. At 50 feet, you are looking at a very tiny thing too, less than 1/2 a degree of movement will make inches of difference, and that is a very slight movement from a human perspective.

Two quick things that I find cause me trouble with a 2h grip are 1) the offhand does not fit on the gun (small frame pistol) which leads to a poor 2h grip which leads to problems and 2) the offhand jitters adding to the main hand jitters. If you cannot hold the offhand steady, every little movement with it is going to add to every little movement of the primary hand, making your shooting worse. If this is the case, your offhand may be much weaker than your main hand and you need to work it out some. It sounds like the second option. You are moving the gun with the offhand or exerting force with it when you shoot, possibly flinching with it but not the other hand, or the like.

57% yes now. I bought a glock 30 whatever rounder yesterday just to have it. Only $30.

If the gun can rust, there is an issue with that. If the ammo is steel, it may also rust. Damp holsters can retain water and that is bad for the gun if stored in them long term -- dry it out in the dryer or sit in the sun or something. That is the bulk of it. The gun should shoot ok. I do not know what effect you might see from the water in a semi auto, you may see some things similar to overlube problems in some guns, if the water is getting into the chamber it may mix with smoke to make crud for example, just like too much oil will. I have never noticed anything significant, but I have only shot in light rain, never really heavy and not for extended periods. Just make sure to clean, dry, and oil up when you get it home, dry out the holster, etc, and it should be OK.

I would get the better part of a square mile, if you can afford it. I know that back when I was with my parents (out in the boonies of N ga), a neighbor that was roughly 3/4 a mile away would often come to check up (looking for illegal hunters) on us when we were target shooting, so clearly he could hear it from that range and through his home walls. That was nothing exotic either, nothing larger than a 44 mag or 12 ga, and often just .22 or 9mm. So if you are within a mile of a home or business etc, they are going to hear it. Safety net depends on your backstops and allowed weaponry. Here again, a mile of thick woods is pretty safe, while an open field you might want closer to 2 miles. At a 45 degree angle, a .50 BMG can probably carry 2 miles with enough force to be of some danger; I do not know the upper limit on a round like this but 2 miles seems like a low-end guess for its maximum dangerous range, and it may be closer to 3 miles (look it up, I am just educated guessing here). Long and narrow is fine but it will mean the folks on the long sides can hear all the noise. If you want to reduce the noise, you need either a lot of cheap land or sound walls. IMHO its probably cheaper to buy more land than to build a 3000 foot long 20 foot tall sound wall. Being out away from it all helps but eventually something will move into the area and be offended by the noise: long term a long skinny strip is not your best bet. Thats all I have for random thoughts. You might call a range for a tour or some ideas and tips. There are a lot of private/public ranges out there, and if you call one outside your area and you might find someone who is willing to offer advice. The ones in your area may see you as competition, however.

updated Handguns 22lr, 22 mag, 223, 380, 38 s/w, 38sp, 357, 9x19, 9x18, .44 mag, 45 acp rifles 22lr, 25-06, 7.65x53, 243, 223, 30-30, 308. shotguns 12ga 3" Updated. Multiples of most of those, looks small listed by caliber.

Surely they could have at least made a better name for it -- the governer even sounds like a copy/rip-off.

The PLR, before you add junk to it, is lightweight. You could shoot it about as well one handed as you could a 10 inch barrel 44 magnum revolver (which is clearly still a handgun by anyone's defination). The AR pistols are usually much heavier (and, oddly, have shorter barrels for the most part) than the PLR. It comes with a light 10 round magazine and is, out of the box, just a large pistol. The more the owner tries to make it into an AR pistol, the heavier it becomes and the less managable it becomes one handed, of course. Even with a 30 round clip and a pistol scope, I can shoot mine 2h pistol style, but I prefer to grip the clip as I said above. Look at the review on gunblast (watch the video). I do not carry mine as a weapon, I got it for long range pistol fun at the range, nothing more. If I have to use that gun as a weapon, the law will no longer matter as society will have collapsed past caring.

Its an AOW. You are best off to pay to have it labeled as a SBR since you can then add the grip without a problem, and you can add a stock if you want later. Even though it is a pistol grip and can be fired one handed, once you put that vertical grip on you have to pay an extra tax on the gun to have it. At that point, its no longer a pistol, and whatever rules there are for carrying a gun adjust accordingly. Your best option, IMHO, is to use a large clip (30+ rounds) as your vertical grip. Its not perfect, but the gun remains a pistol if you grip the clip, and not if you have a forend. That is how I use mine.

Let her pick her own gun after trying a bunch of stuff.

My wife really wants a pink one but most of the ones for sale are junktastic and she is picky. I am tempted to get her something decent & have it pinked as a surprise at some point.

For what little it is worth, the cops normally accept properly peace bonded swords and fighting daggers etc. during festivals/events/etc. for things like sci-fi conventions, SCA, etc. Normally meaning: say there are 20 guys in costume at wendy's with a convention next door, they overlook it and check a couple for the bond and so long as no one whips out a weapon and waves it around, it is let be. Now, with no event/convention nearby, you could quicky be pushing your luck. At such events, you are required to have the bond unless giving a weapons demonstration, and once done with that, it goes back on. The event security folks will throw you out if you do not keep it tied up.