Jonnin

Yep, there is a defect that should be easy to fix.  My para, and indeed all other 1911s I have shot, looked at, or whatever, do not have this issue.  You have a bad part.    I have heard a lot of horror stories about para, but mine is a sweet gun.   Yes, it uses mim parts and yes, my extractor had an air bubble in it that caused it to break.  They sent me another next day air at no cost --- have your friend give them a call, and 10 min on the web should show him a video on how to change out that part.   If that is typical of their service, he should be cured inside 2 days.

let me recommend as well ballistics by the inch (http://www.ballisticsbytheinch.com/).   which mostly can be summed up with "barrels under 6 inches compromise the selected round a lot".    if you pick the same bullet brand/design and the same barrel length,  for example cor-bon, you can get a good sense of the actual comparison between calibers in terms of momentum.     I HIGHLY recommend you IGNORE "energy" and focus on momentum for handguns.  Energy matters less in a handgun and the squared velocity skews the numbers which can confuse people who are not strong at physics.    Only a few handguns have enough energy to be "interesting" in terms of energy transfer, and most of those are either overly potent magnums (usually with a small bullet, like a lightweight 44 mag round out of a long barrel revolver)  or specialty rounds (the FN 55 thingy, 22 mag, those sorts of things). 

congrats!   I looked long at those but its one size too big for my preferred pocket carry.  Still a very, very nice gun.   9mm is probably the most popular carry round,  so it should not be an issue for you.   I think you picked a nice one!

The majority of the answers you will get for "big name" stores will simply be "company policy".    And most of those won't openly admit to being anti-gun so much as against the negatives that come with guns: they don't want liability when ppl shoot each other on their property, they don't want heroes shooting thugs on their property, they don't want accidents ("It jus' went off, I dunno what happent"), and they don't want morons scaring people with open carry etc (not saying open carry makes you a moron, but I am saying that scaring people unintentionally has consequences and scaring them on purpose is even worse...).   There may also be insurance policy riders for it -- insurance may give em a break for posting the sign; that may only be some states but bigger places span many states and use a common set of rules for all stores.   My advice is to save your time and only hit local stores, not big names.   Which you sort of implied by saying small businesses but I thought I would toss out the primary "excuses" used by nameless faces in charge of big operations.   Some of it is self inflicted by gun people being stupid (take the recent example of chipotle ).   Some of it is guntardedness, which is mostly restating the fear of the above lawsuit causing scenarios.   Some of it is practical:  we don't want them here in this bar that is already in a rough part of town...   and some of it, the vast majority, will be from "the owner don't like guns so much he is willing to give up some business over it".        Here is my take on it.   Its not legal advice, its my opinion only.  IMHO the signs, and the weight of the law, are there to enable charges against criminals.  That is, if you are creating a disturbance, robbing the place, or generally doing something that requires the presence of a LEO, this law allows them to arrest you for something.   If you were doing something non-gun related that got you searched, they get to add charges hoping to put you in jail longer or that something will "stick" when you are prosecuted.   Again, IMHO, the most likely scenario if you are well behaved and "made" is simply being asked to leave by the employees, and if you comply, nothing more.   The employees can't detain you without making a citizen's arrest which few are inclined to do without a) thinking to do it bx) feeling the need due to your behavior and c) willing to deal with the aggravation of doing it (paperwork, possible court date as witness, etc).   So you leave, and it ends there, in the case of an honest, well behaved, law abiding citizen.   

I finally saw a ruger mark that I liked and bought it at the gun show this weekend.   Bull barrel and oversized wood grips, at a reasonable $350 or so (I forget the exact list price now, but after taxes and tags it was just over 400).     My old one still works but it has the plastic, can't be replaced grip/frame which I dislike and a number of very worn parts.    Having modest experience with the old one (meaning its been stripped totally a bunch of times) I decided to do a cold (no internet research etc) tune up on the new one.   Took a bit of encouragement to get it apart, being new, and I decided I like the way ruger thinks.  Yes, they added a bunch of extra safety crap, but it was all easily fixed.   First I took a strong magnet and pulled the pin for the "loaded chamber indicator".   Out it comes and about 60 seconds later the metal bit that would interact with the bullet was popped off, and the rest put back in, rendered harmless.  I just did not like the look of it from a potential loading, feeding, ejection standpoint.   Next up, I put in my VQ trigger/hammer/sear system.  Easy enough, though it took some time to get the set screws loose from their position for the old gun.  Then I see the magazine disconnect, and tossed that over along with its spring.  I failed to note the new hammer design that accommodates this feature, so I wasted 30 min polishing a washer to replace it only to discover the VQ hammer did not need a spacer as it lacks the cutout.  So I have a highly polished washer for something now.   Rest was pretty smooth, the slide stop spring thingy is hard to get in with this design and the overloaded hammer pin (transfer bar, hammer, safety, slide release and if I had not removed it, disconnect would all be on this one pin) is downright aggravating.  Thankfully the slide release and safety can be put in place and held by the pin, then add the hammer & bar to finish, but that all had to be done while holding the sear out of the way against its spring else the hammer would not fit.   Then the final assembly, took a bit to align the barrel and frame holes for the mainspring upright bar, and the usual swearing to get the mainspring housing to not only go in but to align to the hammer strut (it went it misaligned easily enough, but that is a re-do).    Should test it tonight, it dry fires properly and seems to check out.  Then lock-tite the rail, trigger set screws, and red dot.  Once I do that, pics of course.   Should be all set up for another 50k rounds or something :)      

they resist rot pretty well if not already in bad shape but they are on the average soft.  We shot into them when I was young, just a .22 rifle, and it tore them up over time.   They won't do well for long if being hit by high powered stuff.   If there is enough dirt in front, the ties could support the dirt very nicely.

I like the NAAs but if you have space I would rather have one of the micro 9s or 380s.   A tiny 9 like the sig 238 or shield can share ammo with your main, perhaps.  There are a lot of small guns out there -- few as tiny as the 22s but tons of 5ish x 4ish x 1.25  "wallet sized" offerings....   

sounds like a victim of the "honesty in advertising" act to me.   Since all the gun shows I have been to in the last 10 years HAVE been combined with prepper gear.

Twice a week I use a disposable razor while showering.  I like the kind that have the "slick when wet" guide strip; I think its a gillette.   One disposable lasts me over a month usually, which is 6 or so goes.  If you clean them they work for at least 5 times on most people I would guess.    I do not use any specific shaving cream or other products, just soap my face with my standard shower soap.    For a long time I used my dad's old double bladed razor, the type that you replace the blade and keep the frame.  But that thing will cut you to ribbons if you slip at all, and heaven help you if you run over a bump -- unless you wanted it surgically removed.   I only use it now if I need to remove extremely long hair -- it is the best thing ever for taking off a beard (but I rarely grow one, its been years now since I last went there).

My mom loves the place and keeps going back.  But its expensive to get there, and once you get there, its expensive to do everything.   If you have the money to burn, a good time can be had for sure.  She's done all kinds of stuff, parasailing, whale watching, traditional luau feast thingy,  pearl, and more.   There are probably cheap things to do as well -- research ahead on that.   Personally, it would be right on up there for places I won't be going.  Not only is that kind of sun nearly fatal for me (I burn in TN within 10 min, I doubt I could walk past a window there)  but its a gun-unfriendly place that does not need my money.   Someone had to say it :P .  To me it would be like going to some sort of combination of NY or CA + death valley.

yes and no.  Yes, ideally more people would get a little ammo.  But if all that were available were 50 round boxes, the scalpers would buy those up instead.   The problem would shift and reappear in a new format.    Wal-mart might spread a little thinner.  Some places sell it by round count though -- you can have 500 or the biggest box we have, in whatever boxes that comes from is the current academy rule.   Wal-mart's rule is just not very good: you can buy 3 boxes, so the first 3-5 people get 1600+ rounds, and the rest get 0, instead of serving 15 or so people one box each.   Couple that with the resellers....     Anyway, I doubt it would help much.   Prices would be higher too: more packing per round expense, more printing, more tax stamps, .....   gas prices for the customers as well, as more trips per round, as well as time = money factor. 

this begs pulling both triggers at once :P   Its very nice looking, congrats!

I have no issue with the pure concept.  Some people want an extra safety feature or 3 -- take the 1911 grip safety or "the magazine must be inserted to fire safety" as some rather silly examples of excess.   I have no problem with the tech either -- sure, it is not 100%, but you know that going into the purchase and made your own decision, right?  All that I can live with.       But the underlying issues are where this gets ugly.  Its a form of gun control: as soon as one gun sells with it, all guns will have to have it (this law is already on the books in a couple of police states and I could see 1/3 or more following and the idiots at BAFTE could mandate it...).   There will be attempts to bully manufacturers into having it on all offerings.  There will be new import laws that all imported guns must have it.  They will even attempt to force people to retro-fit the things onto antiques and collectables.    The part of the gun control agenda that people forget is the "quiet" gun control efforts that are designed to jack up the cost of guns and ammo to the point of being inaccessible.  This tech would jack up the price of each gun you buy or possibly already own by a bunch.   It is meant to put the thumbscrews to gun owners, buyers, and manufacturers, all of whom must eat the costs.   And all for NOTHING: I can, as a tech guy, assure you that the following are true:   1) there will be a way to mechanically bypass it. 2) there will also be a way to electronically bypass it 3) there will also be a way to hack it to apply a new fingerprint for the new "owner" who, erm, acquired it. 4) the biggest losers will be our law enforcement, who will be forced to use it on their guns.  Everyone else will use 1 & 2, just like those darn safety features on a new saw or lawnmower that everyone immediately disables. 

different brands of jeans have different pockets.  Try a few brands to see what works for you.   A lot of carry folks wear an untucked shirt that is big enough to cover part of your pants and break up the outline some.    Dress pants do generally have bigger pockets but they also print more as the material is thinner.    Loose pants can help, skin tight will show more.  Get a belt, go 1 size bigger, and it will hide better.     They *make* a square pocket holster, I forget the brand(s) but its out there in a single piece.      Maybe, don't worry about it.  People carry all kinds of electronics these days, most of it square.  Phones, tablets, chargers, and more.    I don't know what "stylish" even means, but if it means dress clothing a sport coat does wonders to hide things (given your comment on dress pants?)

congrats on everything!    It took us 5 years to finish school and get things in order to be able to marry.  As you said, sometimes events take control and it all works out for the best.  Having a wife that shoots is awesome ... just gotta make/buy a lot more ammo .....

  the NRA targets are funky; you have to be able to mentally find the center of a solid black circle to score well.   I can't do it, something in my mind/visual system does not click.  If I put an orange dot on the bullseye target, I can hit it all day long at slow-fire.  Without the marking the center, I am all over the thing.   I may be in the minority there but I can't use their targets at all.

I also would steer clear of the 223.  Its cheap practice ammo but it has issues at long ranges.   If you handload, there are tons of options.  If you do not, 308 might be the answer as it is fairly inexpensive but it is a bit of recoil in a bench gun / bolt gun.   I highly recommend picking a different round and then loading your own for it -- a low power 308 or 243 or any of dozens of others would all do better than a 223.     If you did go with 223, would heavy bullets do better at longer ranges (inertia to resist crosswinds etc?).   Not 100% sure...  but the ammo choice for 223 means the right barrel twist so gotta think about it before buying.

  a 1500 fps 9mm takes .14 seconds to go 210 feet (70 yards).   In .14 seconds, ignoring externals, gravity drops an object ~ 3.75 inches.  Nice zenwork there. 

  The shield is an excellent choice.   The trigger is very, very good  and the gun is easy to operate with hand issues.     I would stick to the 9.  There is absolutely nothing the 40 can do that the 9 cannot in a real-world scenario.  Its a little more potent, but in the grand scheme of .22 shorts vs 50AE its a gnat's hair of difference.   It reminds me of a powerpoint we did at work one time --- we were proving that our system was better than their old system.  The old system was like 95% accurate and ours was like 98%.   The powerpoint graph was a bar graph that made this difference, when projected onto the viewsceen, about 8 inches apart....   it was laughable.   (Not that our results were not good, this was a big deal, but the graph itself was idiotic).

  Depends on the ammo, and the exact velocity (which is also tied to barrel length).   Drop is just gravity vs velocity.  The faster it moves, the less time gravity has to apply its acceleration.  Basically you reverse compute how long it took to travel from muzzle to target, and then do free-fall physics on it to see how far it dropped in that time frame.   Its simple, but we can't give you the exacts without access to the missing numbers.

  The biggest difference in the pricey ones and the cheap ones are 2 things: 1) *some* of the cheaper models do not have a good warranty and, being cheap, eventually something breaks (usually the on/off switch) 2) most of the cheaper ones have a large dot that covers too much of the target and lack the extra adjustments.  Mine has 6 or 8 dot sizes from "you cant see it at all" to "covers the target entirely"  and 10 or so brightness settings from "you cant see it" to "visible at noon in july on a sunny day".   It has polarized and shaded lens covers for use in a variety of lighting situations.   Some of the really fancy ones have multiple dot shapes and colors on top of all this.   Whether any of that has value to the buyer though?    The only settings I use are the dot size and brightness between indoor and outdoor settings.   The rest of it is largely excess.

the 22 is high.  It should be at most 30 / 500.   However cci is hard to come by, so if you want that brand and that type....   the SD 9mm is fine,  its typical buck-a-round 20/box stuff which has been about that price for a long time.

single stack, and yea, it was a factor, a negative one but to get the size I wanted, the space had to come from somewhere. Pocket carry here so holster type is not something I can say much about.

  if you were exceptionally strong, exceptionally good at shooting, and fired each shot slowly and carefully, should be able to make a 2 inch or so group.   If you were in a firefight, shooting fast at moving targets, you would be unlikely to even hit COM.     If you put those guns in a rest, they should make sub 1 inch at 25 with good ammo, for the most part, and 2-3 at 50 yards should be doable (in a rest).   so, shooting as if in a fight, be happy to score hits with guns like that.    For reference I can hit a large skeet clay (not moving..) at 25 with my sig 938, using handloads, more often than not, probably at least 70% or so, shooting slowly.   The misses are human error.  I could not do that with a 10+ pound trigger pull dao though, I cant hold my hands that steady under the strain.  

  the 380 thing is a joke.  If you get shot by one and are not on an OD dose of painkillers, you will notice it right off if it hits torso or head.  Its not the most potent round ever made.  But the Russians (back when it was the USSR so all those countries and more) the police there used a glorified 380. Its very popular in Europe as well, as a defense round. Its as strong or stronger than many of the rounds used in the 1800s with black powder. It will do the job, in other words. And if that does not convince you, look at james bond knocking bad guys thru walls with one hit from it..!   I also found the glock 17 to be a handful.   Ill be honest, the sig 9 has a sting to the recoil.  One box of 50 is about all I can take at one go.  Its not brutal or even "bad" for recoil but its moderate.  This is where try before buy would be handy.   The 380 is very gentle and I could shoot 200 in one go with it (I would not, but I *could*).    I dunno if you noticed or not but *supposedly* people lose more blood faster with an exit hole so round that do not exit are suboptimal.  The 380 may or may not exit, this is true.  I alternated solid and hollow point ammo in mine.  The solids *should* exit if you don't lodge in a big bone, and presumably you know where those are --- hips and legs for example.