Jonnin

I don't get the gender issue. Im a gent, sure, but I say the same thing I would say to a man asking this question. The recoil is a factor of several things, and really is a per-gun thing. In general, a 6 inch 20 ounce 45 is going to kick more than a 9 inch long 1911 that weighs 3 pounds. The only way to know if you can handle it and like it or not, though, is to try the gun in question, as there are a ton of factors in "recoil" including the springs used, the grip, balance, and more. I personally dislike most small .45s. The "small" ones are still mostly over 6.5 inches (I consider that to be a large gun for concealed carry), and the few that are not all have some sort of drawback like a DAO trigger or 5-6 shot limitation. How small do you want it, thats an important question, and how many shots can you live with? The good news is that there are a lot of options and, unless small 45 recoil is too harsh for you, you can probably find what you want. Medium size, heavy, lots of shots? We got that, para makes a .45 that is about 6.5 inches, 32 oz, 10 shots. Want it light & small? Taurus makes a small, light 45. Double action only, small, designed for carry? Khar makes a good one. Small at all costs, a pocket pistol? There are derringers from 2-5 shots out there in tiny packages, some not much bigger than a 380, though they can be hard to find. I dont have much useful to say, most of my .45 experience is with the big ones, but the important thing to take from this is that your ability to handle a gun is not easy to judge until you actually fire that gun. If one small .45 kicks badly, another may not, due to a difference in weight, springs, design, or other factors. All of the small ones are going to be a little bit more stout than a full sized 1911, however odds are you can find one that feels good to you in the medium-gun size range.

The kel tec also has lifetime warrenty. If you don't abuse the gun, they have been known to rebuild one from the ground up (give you a new gun, effectively). Very very good service. If taurus has a lifetime and the trigger felt good to you, go with it. The LCP, if I remember it rigt, just has a 1 year (?). If you were asking (it didnt make sense) the sig holds 6+1 and stays open so you can do a rapid mag swap, release, ready to fire.

I carry ready to fire. Its pointless, IMHO, to pull something out that is not going to work right away. That said, this causes me to prefer guns that I personally feel are safe when chambered, some styles this seems a little risky esp if you are in trouble and get a case of the fumble fingers. Whatever I have, I want to have to do one rapid, simple, one-handed action to enable the weapon as I draw it, and nothing more. For example, a 1911 style is good, as you draw it you take the safety off, its ready to go. I wont argue that trigger alone guns are dangerous, but I do not like them. It means the trigger pull is going to be harsh, either really long or really stout or both. I hate that: trying to practice with them makes my carpel tunnel act up, so I don't practice, not a good idea. Anything that I would care to shoot would be dangerous if the only safety were the trigger pull.

Its really only something you would do for an underpowered round that has trouble penetrating cover, clothing, or even a fat guy. If you do this, I recommend a flat nose solid / JHP alternating round. Its probably not necessary, but if you train to double tap, thats one of each every time you fire. Its food for thought, but really, I cannot say if its worth doing or not. Maybe yes, maybe no. Ive done it in the past, currently, I am not bothering. The .380 and makarov are the 2 rounds I have done this on at one time or another.

Yea I would love one of the 1911 warthogs, the compact one (3 inch barrel, etc). Still might get me one of those. The nighthawg looks cooler but I prefer the extra weight in the stainless version. Its a definate "if I had extra cash" gun, which means "probably next year or so". If its a play gun, go play, its a good price and a solid piece. You can get the full sized RI GI version for about the same price, if you change your mind and want a big one. I prefer a compact myself, if I want to shoot a foot long 3 pound gun, Ill bust out my desert eagle or borrow my wife's 1911.

The price is nice. What do you want to do with it, and why do you want an ambi safety release? What other features does a 1911 even have that you liked the look of? I have heard good things about RI, but those good things are always followed with a "For the price". IE, you hear "its a good gun for the money". Which implies that, had the buyer had more money, they would have gotten something else, but they feel they got their money's worth from this choice. Seeing this theme makes me think that you could do better if you got a "good used" gun or saved up for a higher quality new one instead, while buying the RI now would get you, well, your money's worth.

That is sound logic. Actually, an open carry guy in a suit, what my mind says is "detective". Use the TV stereotype to your advantage, in this case. I agree with most of what you said. In the same circumstances, I went on a quest to deal with the situation and what I came up with was pocket carry. There are a lot of solid 9mm and .40 cal pistols that will fit into a man's pockets (not to mention the mouse guns) in dress pants or jeans (sorry ladies, your pockets are too small). Not to say its any better, clearly what you are doing is working for you, just saying that is how I dealt with the same issue (dress clothing). These days, with phones and pads and wallets and all the other junk a man might have, a bulged pocket is not realy remarkable so long as you disguise the shape/print (I put an empty wallet in front of mine), and I do not own a cellphone, so the amount of junk I have makes sense at a glance.

Yes, pictures! Glad you got a nice one!

Yes, more or less. The dangerous revolvers have a hammer that IS the firing pin. That is, the hammer is tapered to a sharp point and directly strikes the primer, there is nothing else between the two. That stuff is at least 50 years old, I am not sure when the last of them was made but I have not seen one in anything made after 1960. Its very easy to tell: good revolvers have a flat hammer, bad ones have a needle sharp point. The flat ones strike a "floating" firing pin which in turn strikes the cartridge. In order to fire a modern gun by dropping it, you would have to cock it first then drop it hard enough to either release the hammer by stress or by inertia (trigger inertia overcomes the trigger pull weight). Uncocked, its going to be "nearly impossible" to set one off. Possible, yes, I will say that any gun when dropped *could* fire if just the right things happened, but its extremely unlikely, one in a billion chance or less sort of stuff. So long as you do not drop a cocked revolver, you should be fine. Drop it cocked, and, well, just don't DO that... You are more likely to snag the hammer on clothing and pull it back, then let go, causing a discharge, than you are to set it off by dropping it. This is also unlikely: the partial hammer pullback half rotates the cylinder and the primer is out of phase with the pin. Its not something to worry about. Do your best to not drop them, maintain positive control if you cock the gun, and you can feel safe enough that if you do drop it it will not go off apart from freak accidents. If you want to worry about something, you are far, far more likely to die from fast food or a car accident than by dropping a modern firearm a short distance.

The problem isnt the cops, its the antigun idiots who call them in "hes got a GUN!" or the uninformed. Then they *have* to see your carry permit or at least approach you and talk. Cops vary, some of them very much dislike armed citizens, others are fine with it. Its best not to deal with this. Worse, you make yourself a target for a bad guy wanting to steal your gun. Worse, if you were in a situation, you have no chance to suprise the bad guy, he knows you have a gun, and if you make a move, you die. Why bother? Hide the darn thing, and if you can't, get a smaller one that you can hide.

thanks guys, sounds about like I suspected. I prefer no one know, so I do not mention anything gun related around strangers. Tell the manager or owner and now he knows forever that you have a gun, and can even in jest mess you up with a "ya packing today?" or other goofy comment, then the 5 guys near you know too, an pretty soon you may as well open carry... No thanks.

Glad everyone was OK. If you have to have an incident with a gun, its best when no one gets hurt and everyone lives to learn from it. I think you are correct: the odds of a modern firearm going off from a light drop is slim. Possible, but unlikely. And equally likely for pretty much any brand/design. I dont see a 1911 as any more dangerous; possibly less so given that hammer back, safety - on setup + a grip safety means quite a bit of unusual circumstances to make it fire by dropping. A revolver, it could happen but the force needed would exceed a 10 foot drop, not a 3 foot fall from your belt, the force just isnt there. There is no reason to get a new gun at all. It would have been equally scary no matter what type of gun it was, IMO, moreso for a few models and older guns, but about the same panic no matter what.

I noticed lately that a lot of places still have the old signs up that say "it is illegal to carry weapons where alcohol is served, doing so is a crime and you pay a fine and stuff". These signs often look like they were posted 20 years ago, from the discoloring, and nothing else is posted on the door or anything. It looks for all the world like they just do not know that the law was changed, and that the state is not going out of its way to ensure that these signs are removed. Do we just ignore them? That is what I have been doing.

Very nice job, indeed! That is almost too pretty to shoot! They seem to be pretty close to the mak design. For my mak, I shortened the bar between the trigger and hammer (the really long one that goes down the side of the frame) by about 1/4 inch. The result was a target trigger, single action only mak. You need someone with a quality welding rig and tools to do it though; the first time the weld broke after like 5 shots, the second time, well 3k rounds or so later, its still going. Or you could have a shop machine a new bar from scratch. Its the only mod I did to mine. My finish is thin and worn off in places but it doesnt seem to rust, so I havent messed with it. The trigger mod isnt for everyone, but if anyone wanted to make one of these things into a cheap target gun, its perfect. I wouldnt do that on a carry piece, doubly so if you do not trust your welding ability.

I have a p-40, same thing apart from caliber. If I could pull the trigger on it, it would be my favorite carry piece. As it is, though, my old hands do not have the power to fire the gun rapidly enough for defense. Its all I can do to work through one clip of ammo with it, and that at a slowish rate of fire. Mine is like-new, stored now since the p-40 is no longer made.

That is a nice looking gun & ammo combo, never seen one of those. Looks to be much more potent than a makarov, if you want a more powerful sidearm.

unload it. Depending on your state, of course, but in most "sane" states it is legal to transport a handgun, unloaded, with the intention of getting it to your home or to the range, etc. Its also legal to transport ammo. So long as the 2 are seperate and its not easy to load in a flash. So wrap the ammo in something hard to open and in another container than the gun, and its legal in many states.

If you run across one, a kel-tec p-40 is almost the same as the Khar but holds more rounds, a slight size/capacity tradeoff but they are hard to find now. (Personally, I have decided that DAOs are not for me, and moved to a PX4 SC .40 for the SA trigger pull for follow up shots). The lighter guns are nicer to carry, but the heavier ones are nicer to shoot, its a tradeoff there too. In the end what you carry is a bunch of choices put together into what works best for you, IMO its best to make a decision tree of size, weight, caliber, number of shots, action type, etc and then ask around about the stuff that fits those needs, to see what other people like in a similar platform.

I use the sig p238 for a .380. Its design reduces recoil a bit so its not a hand bruiser like some of these little carry guns, and its light trigger lets me put every shot into a 2-3 inch group at 20-30 feet. Its pricy though. Its a 1911 style: carry hammer back and safety on for fast use or practice safety off and pull the hammer back as you draw it, both modes work great. Its the same size as the LCP. I wouldnt trade you this gun for a box full of the p3at clones. The LCP is the same as the kel-tec 380, which costs less and has a better warrenty, though the LCP is probably slightly better overall quality. The khar is, IMO, better still. THere are 4 or 5 more small 380s in this category, mostly DAO jobs like the diamondback or the hellcat, or if you want a laser sight, the bodyguard. Shop around on all these if you don't like the sig's design. Your larger gun, well I am not a glock fan (awesome guns, its a style thing nothing more) so I doubt I can help you there.

Lots of .22 semis will only work with mini-mags or other stout loads until well broken in, these have more power and can cycle a stout action.

I dunno either. They shot the BB ammo in a CZ and it didnt explode, but admit that it wears out the gun faster (as hot loads do). Take a look at their stuff on shooting JHP in 380 and similar cartridges and consider alternating JHP and flat nosed rounds as one way to load up for defense, or something. They are not a fan of the JHP in makarov, but offer it anyway because people ask for it. When I run outta bulk ammo I may check that monarch stuff out myself. Here is another option: 9mm Makarov 70gr Pow'RBall | COR®BON/Glaser Self Defense | Dakota Ammo Its a bit lightweight at 70 grains, but they make a lot of claims about it and the extra velocity should penetrate a bit more if you are concerned after reading the BB caveat.

Thats one heavy gun...

Only suggestion I have is, when you can, put one inside another to save space. Some will and some will not do this. If the box is cardboard and you can do so without harm, collapse it, here again some willl and some will not do this.

I do not live in fear, but I obscure the number. I would do the same for any item of value that I posted on the web, its not a gun thing. I have no idea what clever sort of scheme could be done with the number, but I do not want to find out, so I obscure any and all personal info on the web to a high degree and this is part of that effort, nothing more. My camera takes 20 something megabyte pictures anyway, and I resize, crop, and webify them anyway before posting, it takes 2 extra seconds to remove the SN, 10 if you want to make it pretty (pixel push tool) instead of just draw a black box over it.

I don't get that, they had 1 sign before, now they have 2 signs, but the actual places you can go are not changed, just the way it is marked, so why is this a big deal? The only problem I have with it (beyond that it is legal to infringe at all, violation of 2nd) is that the new sign is small enough to miss and you now have to LOOK for it proactively. I can accept that for being able to eat somethign besides fast food without worry.