Old Dog

Had both, M&P was a jam-o-matic. Ruger was great.

I carry daily and find that Kydex is unyielding against my hip. Feels like a brick but if you just want a holster for the heck of it or if for OWB, not a bad choice. For me, a hybrid holster is the most comfortable IWB holster is the way to go.

When I moved to Florida I had to make this choice for real. Problem was that I knew nothing about carry guns. After going through a lot of guns I ended up with an 11oz. S&W J-frame Airlite, Sig P928 and M&P Shield and have a Glock 43 arriving tomorrow. Most times the J-Frame is the easiest to carry in my pocket.

A Boker automatic blade mostly and a Spyderco Matriarch or Blawkhawk CQB Mark I, E type. I also have a small collection of neck knives that I wear. Since I carry a gun, my knifes are used more for just cutting duties.

I do not have just one blade. Most times I will carry my Boker automatic folder or Spyderco Matriarch along with a neck knife. I also keep a Blackhawk CQD Mark I, E type in my car. My main defense outside of my home is a carry gun, either a 9mm or .45 acp so my knife choice is not that important.

I do not tell people about my firearms the same way I do not tell them about my sex life, religion or politics. I see no reason to tell anyone.

That is what I did and could not be happier. The big difference between there and here is that here most of my neighbors own guns and the overwhelming majority support my right to own and carry one. In NJ, there were only two of us in my development that owned guns. I ended up in two major arguments when I mentioned guns to two neighbors who were very anti gun. So I ended up keeping a low profile and never talking guns to anyone outside of the gun club. Here, I can talk guns with just about anyone, men and women.

I'd go with the Ruger. I have owned both the Government and Commander models. 100% Ruger reliable and a good value. I got a good resale price on mine when I sold them. I ended up with a Sig 1911 Scorpion and Colt New Agent. I would buy another Ruger in a heartbeat.

There are full automatic pistols and rifles but no full automatic revolvers so no need to differentiate between revolvers.

I moved from NJ to Florida when they started talking about the one gun a month law. I buy about 2-3 guns a month and have bought as much as 8 in two days. I bought 5 just a week ago. I like to collect and shoot guns as my main hobby so I could not stay in NJ as my guns are all new production and used for shooting,. I am not a collector, just an avid consumer. Life is so much better now plus no snow.

As an outsider, I find it interesting that people are complaining about the need for a notary rather than a need for the reference letter. Reference letters from friends, accomplish nothing at all. Just another step in the process.

I have no idea why you do not like the iPad, we have four including the iPad mini, but I hope it is not just Apple hating. Sure it is expensive but it is more useful than anything else I have found. I use my iPad from a pool to do my job. I can run everything I need to maintain our national computer network. I can remote into any server or PC, run diagnostics, use MS Office, get email and texts and have access to more games and apps than I can possibly use. I have a free Kindle app that lets me read ebooks purchased for the Kindle. I watch movies from all of the services that provides them but do not enjoy them on a small screen unless I am traveling. My cable company gives me access to their programming through my iPad. I use GoToMyMeeting and similar on my iPad and even can receive and send phone calls on it using my company's VOIP service that makes my iPad and iPhone, a smart phone that receives all of my business calls when I want it to. I can also make calls through my company anywhere in the world without having to pay my cell company. I run a Microsoft shop but when it comes to personal devices, I like Apple. I pay the extra cost because when you prorate it over the life of the device, it is really not much and it gives you access to a large world of applications and content. Even my technically challenged wife who did not want an iPad and bought herself a Kindle, now owns two iPads, an older one and the new iPad Air. I am in love with my iPad mini as I can work from anywhere in the world without carrying the larger iPad.

I have been a ham for about 10 years holding an Extra license and not once did I find it useful for anything but rag chewing. The last big storm I lived through in NJ destroyed our local repeater and all the others were kind of dead. Many chased me off the air because they were being run by Skywarn or ARES. None of my friends and family could be reached by ham radio and I could not get accurate weather information unless I used one of the NOAA frequencies. I ended up using the internet which was working just fine. I sent and received text to all family members and even called them on the phone. Down here, a rural area of Florida, the few repeaters are dead on a good day and not one soul could be found during the last hurricane we had. I have one HF and 3 VHF/UHF radios plus two digital scanners and could not get any info or even talk to someone. All public service providers here use digital encrypted communications that cannot be intercepted by anyone outside of their agency. I have $800 worth of scanners that get receive one fire station in a different county than were I live and that it is. My experience in an emergency is that most of us had no power and insufficient battery backups. My handy talkies all had spare batteries but our radio club had all sorts of emergency power to last almost two days but did not do anything to prevent their antenna from being blown away. You know that in NJ we can reach a lot of repeaters in NYC but most were dead. This was my first emergency as a ham and I was expecting all sorts of activity but I got silence with the exception of a few others trying to get information like I was. My internet was down so I had no means to communicate and my $20K of ham radio equipment was useless. Now I have Cable internet and AT&T cellular internet and so far one of the other has always worked and the internet was far more helpful than any radio I owned.

Right before the AWB a ling time ago, some enterprising men bought high capacity magazines by the hundreds. After the AWB was passed, a Glock 15 round magazine was selling for $100 due to the way the law allowed high capacity magazines manufacture before the ban went into effect. To tell the truth, most of us thought that the Assault Weapons Ban would not be passed and it looked like it would not until the last minute when some backroom deals were made. It caught me flat footed as it did for many. Even though Florida is gun friendly and has never even considered any restrictions on guns, I made sure that I have enough high capacity 30 round AR and 15 to 17 round pistol magazines, in case the Feds push a ban down our throats. Even the proposal of such legislation is enough to drive prices sky high. I know make sure that I have all that I need and a few extras to last me the rest of my life.

Or just edit them, if you can, and delete the text. I think sometimes we all post things we regret, for whatever reason, and want to take them back. Text does not convey emotions very well. Something you say to someone in a kidding way can come across as nasty. I tend to be funny sarcastic in person and people can tell by my facial expressions that I am playing with them or do not really mean it. However, if I post that way, and sometimes I do, it does not play well in text.

I live in a community of 100,000 people where 95% are registered Republicans. The anti gun people keep a low profile. Never heard one person speak out about guns in the last 4 years. Life can be good, but not in NJ.

If we had the internet 45 years ago, I would be reading the same stuff as I read now. Is your case specific to only your circumstances of being robbed and threatened or would a victory enable the general public to get ccw permits? If very limited to your circumstance, I can understand why pro gun groups would not support you with their limited funds. I guess the question they ask is if Joe Average would benefit from a win in this case or just, a few people. In any event, I wish you luck. I waited very long for ccw to come to NJ and then decided that my best option, in the face of ever increasing gun control in NJ, was to move out of State if I wanted to live my remaining days with few restrictions on my shooting hobby, personal protection and gun collecting. As they say, you got to know when to hold then and know when to fold them.

I truly wish you luck with this but the Newark riots a long time ago and subsequent cry for concealed carry, did not move Trenton. I doubt that fear of the knockout game, something found in a lot of cities, is not going to change their cold black hearts.

Tell me this is not true. It must be a lie, but I read it myself yesterday. Every one of my guns has a hammer. Now HK is going to the dark side too. I was aghast when FNH did it and now HK. Good thing I stocked up on guns with hammers. I tried striker fired guns but never kept any. I like the old guns the best. The Sig P series and HK USP. Just what I am used to and feel most confident with. I pretty much been buying guns at an alarming rate and finally have a nice little collection, of old fashioned guns.

When I used to compete, I used a Benelli M2. I used to own a dozen shotguns and my experience was that a good recoil pad and low recoil ammo made more of a difference than differences between shotguns. During competition, when the adrenaline is flowing, I never noticed the recoil. I tend to concentrate on my target so much that everything else is tuned out. I assume that you are using target rounds and if so, they sell low recoil ones and those are the best for competition.

Replaced it with an HK P2000SK.

I made that decision 4 years ago this week. After 43 years of watching NJ heading slowly towards stricter gun control, I told the wife to put the house up for sale and 7 months later we found ourselves in Florida where they did not even back down when the rest of the country and every anti gun and civil rights group was screaming for the revocation of our Stand Your Ground law. If you do move to a gun friendly State, and be careful because a gun friendly State this year may not be after the next round of State elections. The two things that stand out the most from my 40+ years in NJ and my 4 years in Florida are: Florida is offensive when it comes to gun laws. NJ is defensive. We spend our time trying to push through more gun friendly laws. NJ spends its time trying to defeat or lessen anti gun laws. In NJ, I rarely talked guns outside of the gun club. I kept quiet about my guns. In Florida, the anti gun people are the ones who keep quiet or suffer a rain of condemnation. It took 4 decades to realize the direction that NJ was slowly headed when it came to guns and it is not a good direction.

We see the glass half empty and the anti gunners see it half full. The problem is that there is no way to scientifically link the two. In Florida, our concealed carry laws were passed when the homicide rate was already on a steep decline and despite our ccw laws, we tend to track the nation when it comes to homicides. Homicides increased in Florida, the same time they increased nationwide. It is not good logic to say something equivalent to carrying a rabbits foot keeps you safe. You do and you are but are the two cause and effect? In NJ, you will never know unless it becomes a shall issue State. Statistics and trends are easily adopted by both sides of the gun argument. I spent part of my career interpreting results to favor whatever my clients wanted them to support. There are few studies that do not have holes in them to tear them apart or interpret differently. In NJ, I would tend to use the argument that there is a greater need for self defense since NJ's homicides are increasing when the national trend is decreasing. I stay away from the ccw = less homicide argument. I view it more as a self defense issue regardless of the homicide trend. Just something to think about.

Gone back to sleep?

Great and let's hope you get all that you need to buy a handgun before you are too senile to do so.