Jonnin

Just remember that its not the bullet weight alone that makes recoil.  Its the combined weight & powder charge/type.  And they do not tell you the powder info....  again look for words like cowboy, wadcutter, low recoil, or read the velocity on the back and get the one that has the lowest answer to (bullet weight X velocity).  

I could do it.  But I am not a PRO.  I have about 5 grades of stones from "lawnmower" to "surgical" and tend to only use the top 3 on good items (soft ark, hard ark, surgical).  It might be a little uneven when I am done, unlike some of the machine assisted jobs.  But it will shave you when I am done.   Just an old school by hand stone sharpening job, in other words.  It would be a drop off / pick up a week later thing.  I have to do it a little at a time. 

  Possibly.   While I have felt for some time that the Z is a moron, its *possible* that someone who knows who he is could set him up in order to stir the pot, due to his infamy.   Hard to say. 

  The sportsmans warehouse here in chatt. had the pink 90 grain 38 lights, quite a bit of it considering what it was.  Dunno who else carries it.  Look for some "cowboy" loads or "wadcutter" loads, a few places sell these and they are almost always fairly gentle.

My wife and I both have a lot of weakness and she also is more of a revolver shooter.   She picked the Ruger GP 357, but for this conversation the SP is just as good.  Either of these, you can buy a cheap (under 20 bucks) spring kit and very easily replace both the trigger return spring and the hammer spring.  Doing so runs a risk of light strikes on SOME brands of ammo, so you have to test it carefully if you use the lightest of the light springs.   So far we have had maybe 4 light strikes out of about 500 rounds of handloaded ammo that I made, and 0 out of ??? for tested defense ammo.     The result is all anyone could ask for.  I could pull that double action trigger with my pinky, its only slightly worse than your glock was for a trigger pull.  Out of the box, unmodified, she could not pull the DA trigger at all and I needed both my index and bird fingers on the trigger to manage it.   You *may* be able to do something similar for the S&W pistol --- I do not know what the springs are like in it nor do I know how hard they are to change.   All I know is the ruger was simple enough that I did it with nothing more than a small screwdriver and a small hex wrench, and the hex wrench was just used as a pin/punch assist.     As for recoil, 357 can be fed anything from a weak 38 to a beefy 357, you can pick something that feels good to YOU.   It is hands down the most flexible round for choosing how much recoil you can handle and buying the appropriate ammo to suit that.   If none of the store bought ammo works, you can make some... I make a light 38 special load using a 380 acp bullet that has almost no recoil at all.   Beef that up with a speer gold dot 380 just a bit and you have something in the neighborhood of a 9mm, low recoil and adequate.  Keep going and you can lob the 170+ grain rhino killers and break your wrist with the recoil, its all up to the shooter's wants and needs...   You can FOR SURE buy light 38 special rounds and shoot them for fun and enjoy it a lot, minimal recoil and a great experience.  However, shooting 38s makes gunk in the cylinder that makes loading 357s hard, you have to spend some time cleaning the cylinder after shooting it a lot if you want to change caliber that way.  It takes me about 30 min to scrub the cylinders back to a point where the 357s "fall" in clean.   If you stick to 38s, its a non-issue.   Also, you can get a glock safety.  There is a way to drill a small hole thru the trigger and "lock" the "safety" thingy so the trigger can't be pulled until the safety is clicked off.  See?  It forces that thing in the middle of the trigger to remain in the "cant pull me" state until you push the pin to turn the safety off.   I have seen a few people with this mod.  Also, there are other semi-autos you could try, many much smaller, but if you want and like a revolver, use the revolver.   I carry the sig 938, which has a trigger you could probably use and is not too bad to rack, but it just depends on your hand strength and flexibility etc, everyone's handicaps are different so it would be a try before you buy thing.  But there *are* autos out  there that you can probably operate *if you wanted that*.   The auto gets you as much or more firepower in the same size package...  I get 7 shots of 9mm in something smaller than the smallest 5 shot 357s.   But the tradeoff is risk of jam, having to rack it, a safety to click, .... all handguns are a compromise.

  The barrel twist does not matter for a defensive rifle.  If you want to shoot long range, or specialty ammo (extra light or extra heavy) in a competition gun at a "long" (for an AR) range, then it matters.  For a 25 -100 yard defense situation (and 100 is really, really pushing any normal use of the word "defense") using standard ammo, ANY twist rate that you can buy will deliver the round accurately enough to stop an attacker.     That said I am another big fan of the S&W.  I have 3 of them now,  2 in 223 and one in 308.   One of them is the sport and the other is the next grade up that has a dust cover and FA.   I don't even know the twist rates of any of them off the top of my head!     So my advice is to look for the other features you wanted, and ignore the twist rate. 

Eh, my advice is to never trust the guy that is selling you a gun, unless you KNOW the person pretty well.   Even then, you better check it out yourself first.  Gun shop or a store that has a couple of guns in the back, does not matter,  even at a gun show.   It breaks down something like this...   guy does not know what he is talking about: 50% chance guy knows a little but screws up minor details:  25% chance guy is shady, and is willing to lie to sell the gun: 20% chance guy is actually honest and knowledgeable:  5% chance    so odds are not in your favor of having a good experience if you go in trusting the guy trying to sell you stuff.   Actually, this is true about almost anything, its not gun specific...

most 380 is weakly loaded here in the states, even the so-called defense stuff.   The reason people shoot ball and worry about underperformance is the low pressure american ammo.   If you search, you can find some full power ammo out of euro countries or take a look at buffalo bore, or make your own.  The 380 with full power ammo is still weaker than a 9mm but if you are trusting it with your life, then I recommend spending some time to find the best ammo you can for it.      I alternate JHP an FMJ in mine,  as even full power hollow points may lack penetration.  Its just not gonna be easy to push a 40ish diameter expanded round with a lower than standard pressure 9mm powder charge.

Its been squeezed thru a barrel, it may have elongated a little bit.  But i was thinking a heavy 9mm maybe. 

heh.  My take on it is that ALL new is so muddled that its hard to tell the jokes from the screw ups. 

welcome!   I would be happy to help if you need hands-on reloading support, or if you ask here you get plenty of help from many, there are tons of old threads on what to buy etc kicking around.  Also sportsmans warehouse has a very basic how-to class with Q&A after that might be worth a look.   Buying most anything except 22 or bottom shelf 9mm / 223 / etc saves a bunch of money per round fired.  45 will get you more than 50% savings for better quality ammo than the "cheap" 45 practice stuff. 

If it was fired into the air, it is unlikely it came down with enough force to go through anything.  Straight up shots won't even penetrate a roof (they come down slowish).  It was fired at less than 45 degrees, at a guess, making a freak hunting stray seem more likely ??   If that is the actual bullet, it looks like a pistol round.

I thought it was gonna be that one of the printed pistols blew up....  next time just point the printer at em...

I think the answer is try other powders.  Maybe #7, or even #5, or branch out to another brand if none of those do it for you? 

I think one of the most offensive things I have done recently was the case lube incident.   I had a lot of cases to lube, and, in a fit of creativity, decided that a ziplock bag full of lube and cases, shaken up, would be a lot faster than the one at a time as-I-go method.   I use the hornady unique lube, which is semisolid.  So I stick the tub in the microwave, knowing that it should liquify and then I can pour a little of that in the bag and shake it all up.     Well, the first thing I find out is that the melting point of the lube is almost the same as the melting point of the cheap plastic container that it came in.  So they both go at about the same time.   The second thing I find out is that once it spread out thin across the bottom of the microwave, it heats up much faster and starts to "cook" for want of a better term.   I turned it off pretty quickly once I saw the tub let go, but it let go from the bottom up, naturally.   It make a pretty nasty stink and was quite a pain to clean up.  Would have been extremely bad if I had been even 30 seconds later on turning it off....   Also, having saved some of the stuff,  I tried it in the bag and it worked OK but, of course, it got some down inside the cases.  So the method is not terribly useful after all.   For the record, you can liquify it in a glass bowl without making too much stink.  It was melting the container that caused the problems.   I have no idea what possible use you could have for it in liquid form since the bag method was useless, but if you ever need boiling hot case lube,  use a glass container to heat it...

  If you do not like the buffer tube, get a plr-16 or one of the other no tube platforms.  That is what I have.  And, I agree that the tube can make a poor man's stock but if the SHTF I will put my forend grip on mine illegally and I prefer it set up that way.     If I had it to do again, the sig package looks like a nice setup.  The Kel tec has not missed a beat for me though, and it was cheap (about $400) and holds a good group at 200 yards (I have a scope on mine, but I may go to red dot, the scope is hard to use). 

  Well its basically the same thing.  I toss it in with the bills, and when I get back to home base, it goes into a bucket.  When I said it, I was not trying to imply I had $5 in nickels, dimes, and pennies stuffed in there.  But this this design, not having a bill pouch area, it needs a change pouch (for some users, anyway).     If it were mine I would also be tempted to tear apart a cheap USB disk and put it in there somehow.  Bootable with portable apps and PC cure-all programs.  Might not be too long until you could get some sort of tiny tablet PC in there too....

  And its not difficult to understand.  The hole is the size of an expanded 9/357/etc every time.  Bigger still if you use a 45 JHP or LRN or other expanding design.  And the momentum of the round is impressive, the energy decent.   Its a potent, well designed round.  It also has significant recoil in carry sized guns and many of the small 45s have "issues", and its diameter reduces round count.  Which makes the usual point... all handguns are a compromise.

They do not have to be fat and slow, you can find or load lighter projectiles and get a reasonable speed instead of a 800 fps flying brick, and modern guns can take a stouter load than the traditional data that is safe to use in 100+ year old antiques.   As for pricing, the question begs "compared to what"??    25 acp and 380 are small rounds that cost nearly as much.   Most rifle rounds are a buck every time you fire.   Reloading almost all calibers is the only thing that makes sense with today's prices.  45 is, unfortunately, on the high end of average priced ammo.   Now, the rest of it, not a fan.  Low capacity, large guns are not a good pick for carry for me, and I will probably never carry a 45 anything.   The grip does not bother me (I have a desert eagle in 44 and can hold it comfortably one handed, same as I can a 1911 in 45).   I can see how small hands would not care for a 45 though, but I would argue that a double stacked 9mm is just as fat so you can't, at the same time, make a logical argument that a highcap 9 is better due to capacity but the 45's grip is too wide, its one or the other (you either need a single stack 9 for a smaller grip, or you just like highcap and dislike the low round count, but both at once is not logical).   So, for me, I love the 45 as a range toy.  I reload it, so its not that expensive, a little more than 9s but not so much that I worry about it.   I like the 45's proven track record as a manstopper.  But like yourself, its just too few rounds in too big a platform for my carry needs, so if I were only buying guns for self defense, I would pass on the 45 nearly every time.

I agree with Mr. Firm!   In the short term, cash will be used.  I think after that food and water will begin to be of value at an increasing rate.  The shortage of THOSE will lead to an interest in firearms and ammo.   I do not think gold and such will have any short term value to most people --- it is too easy to get swindled with junk that is gold plated or glass gemmed or whatever.  And in the long term, people will have started to DIE OFF and things that are of no immediate use (money, gold, etc) will only be accepted by those who 1) have plenty and 2) think that the chaos will be restored to order in the not too distant future.     Or, let me put it this way: if YOU have a safe full of guns and ammo and a shed full of food and water, and a bunch of survival stuff, medicine, etc .... if the country goes to hell in a handbasket, would you trade away your chance at survival for a lump of yellow metal that, at best, could be made into a bullet but pretty much is of zero use?  Or an antique quarter worth what, 20 bucks?  Or a bunch of paper money that won't even burn and is too small to wipe your butt with? 

  Possibly.  Kel tech (foolishly IMHO) put a very low round count on their data sheets and web site for the "life" of their pistols.   A lot of nay-sayers have made much hay over this, even though owners have put way more rounds thru them without failure.   Kel tec has an excellent replace and repair policy, if you DO manage to wear one out.   At the end of the day, you get what you pay for.  I like kel tec, but their  defensive handguns are built to be sold at a low price.  They are meant to be purchased, shot a bit in practice, but mostly carried.  They were never built to withstand a box a week over a 50 + year lifetime.   If you want something that will last until your great grandchildren finally store it as an heirloom and antique rather than shoot it any more, kel tec probably is not the best pick --- spend 3x the money on something made of solid steel.    If you want something that goes bang to stick in your pocket for a low price, KT becomes a much more attractive choice.  

Pretty lame but calling a boycott over what looks like a screw up by a single individual in a chain that hires many tens of thousands of bottom of the barrel type employees is possibly a drastic over-reaction to this?   I mean, they made the offer and probably gave away thousands of bucks worth of burgers to vets across the country.  ONE of em did not get his burger due to a screw up.  I can't get mad at the whole chain over THAT.  They did not have to give away anything at all... 

  Pour some sulfuric acid on sugar if you want an awful smoke bomb.  My less than bright wrestling coach turned science teacher did that and cleared out the entire school building for 45 min.  Was not a lot, either,  maybe a quart jar 1/3 full of sugar and enough acid to react it.  (I loved the guy, he was funny and earthy,  but his chemistry was downright dangerous, he blew up a chunk of sodium that got burning, reacting sodium dust on us, amongst other things). 

ammonium nitrate is a lot like saltpeter which is the basic ingredient for explosive black powder, and both compounds are found in nature in usable formats for the truly desperate.   And again, they are not really all that exotic, you can buy or make better.     I wonder if AN is usable with charcoal dust?