Old Dog

No! Sorry, just a reflex response. What was the question?

Nope. I got one bare bones one to remind me of my time with an M16 in NAM. If the SHTF, I plan on using it to take a better one from one of those YouTube kids with tricked out AR's and no training. Let them spend the money.

If I thought that life in NJ was so dangerous that I had to carry a rifle around in my own home, I would move. Wait a minute, I did just that. The Ruger SP101 is a great gun for NJ. A little too heavy for carry compared to similar guns but good for what you are using it for. As I get older, I find larger guns too heavy to hold for more than a few minutes. I like guns that are less than 25 ounces now. I also find that they handle better for me. Easier to bring onto target and just generally feel better in my hand.

I bought one two weeks ago for $539 shipped, which I thought was a great deal. Did this price include shipping? For civilians who are not going to compete or take extensive training classes with the AR15, the M&P15 sport is a great buy. Never needed a forward assist in Nam and if I do now, that concave indentation is there on the bolt so that you can put your finger on it and push it forward. As far as the dust cover goes, if your house is cleaned regularly, dust will never be a problem for most AR15's kept at home or shot at a range. The dust cover opens with your first shot anyway and if you are firing from a prone position in monsoon rains and mud, a dust cover is not going to do you any good. It is only useful when you are not using your rifle and are crawling through mud and sand. Something I never plan on doing as a civilian. Not all of it may be mil-spec but then again, the majority of us will never need mil-spec quality. The M&P has a flat top so for those who want optics, it is very easy to mount and co-witness. I do not need rails on my foregrip as I want to keep my rifle as simple and light as I can. No lights (something that would have gotten me killed in Nam) on my rifle or lasers. I really prefer to be stealthy rather than provide a runway to my position.

As an old LEO friend once told me, if I want to learn self defense in a hurry, I should learn the same way I learned how to swim. Jump into the deep end and ether sink or swim. Only, in this case, it would be spending a few nights in Newark.

Personally, when I lived in NJ for a few decades, I never bought anything smaller than a duty sized pistol which I used for home defense and competition. I never got an out of State carry permit as I rarely traveled out of State. I never needed a gun while living in NYC and NJ and the odds of needing one, for the few weeks I spent out of State, were too small to warrant the bother and expense for both gun and permit. I admit to feeling bemused at fellow gun club members who found any excuse to go to PA just so they could carry their guns. They talked about it a lot and would say how they stopped their car as soon as they crossed State lines to strap on their carry guns. I was bemused then but when I moved to Florida, I went out almost every day, mostly to just be able to carry a gun, break in a new carry holster or feel how a new carry gun carried. I then understood the feeling of freedom from the restrictive laws of NYC and NJ, my former home towns, and a relaxation of concern for situations that I could no longer handle in my old age. I no longer needed the physical strength to fight off a 25 year old miscreant. John Browning made me equal, as well as Sam Colt. I am now fascinated with small carry guns. Most of my guns are compacts or sub compacts. I only own two full sized duty guns. Should I mover back to NJ due under penalty of death (I may choose death though), I would take my duty sized guns and one carry gun, my J-frame. I have now learned that a small gun is very useful for those times when someone is knocking on your door late at night, as a backup to your main weapon or simply to put in a pocket while you sit and watch TV. Sure beats carrying a big gun from room to room or answering the door at 11PM and trying to hide that Beretta FS92 behind my back so that I do not scare the neighbor who needs someone to watch his kids so that he can take his infant to the emergency room. A LCP on a neck holster is the perfect way to answer a door at night or provide you with a backup to your primary weapon.

I rarely cleaned a mag when I was competing every weekend. Just banged them a little to let the dirt fall out and spritzed them with some mag cleaner. I have probably taken a magazine apart for cleaning about twice in 43 years. Never had a quality mag go bad on me. Just some cheap ones which did not work well from day one. If you use mags with a heavy bumper pad, they will end up landing on the pad and unless you are planning on competing in pouring rain and dropping mags into the mud, I would not worry about it. Over the years I have stopped doing a lot of things that were once regarded as necessary. I managed to win some prize money with a stock gun and holster with dirty mags. YMMV

On the practical side, do you want to waste time in showing guns to people that are a long way from being able to buy one. You will probably end up spending a lot of time with window shoppers and the time saved will be worth more than the occasional lost sale. Try to get a car salesman to spend some time with you, without a driver's license sometime.

FNS 9, M&P9. I so not own a 9mm in your price range at the moment as I am on an HK and Sig kick. The two I named have both served me fine in the past. I king of like the FNH line. Just as reliable as an HK or Sig and the last two I bought came with 3 mags and two grip sizes. I call the FNH line the poor man's HK due to its resemblance to them, reliability and soft recoil.

Very nice. I used to own the Practical Model with the Chrome slide. I still think it is the best feeling gun I ever owned and I have owned about 40 handguns or more. My problem with it was hammer bite. Not matter which hammer I used, I would bleed if I did not put a pre-emptive Band-Aid on the web of my hand. I did not want to spend money on having the hammer spur removed because I like hammer spurs and either the gun conforms to me or it goes away. Since then I have learned not to buy guns without a large tang or with slides that ride too close to my hand. these days all of my semi autos have full tangs so slide and hammer bite are never a worry. I still miss my HiPower. It was just perfect for me except for the bleeding part.

I lived in and out of NJ for over 40 years with the hope it would get better. It only got worse and worse over time so I moved to Florida. I do not see NJ ever getting more pro gun. Too close to NYC and too liberal. The big differences between here and there is: - Pro gun State - Pro gun population majority - Real Republican politicians, not democrats in disguise. - instead of the pro gun people constantly trying to squash or limit anti gun laws, here the anti gun people occasionally try to change all our great pro gun laws. - In NJ gun owners are on the defense. Here they are on the offense proposing legislation to increase our gun rights. Big difference that took me a while to absorb. When I first moved here I used to walk into one of the 8 local guns stores and ask them if the item I was interested in was legal. They always gave me a funny look. Hey, I could not buy a 100 round magazine in NJ so I did not know any better.

The only brands that I now buy and trust are: Sig HK S&W FNH Ruger That covers all 9 of my carry and home defense guns. Not one has jammed in the last 4 years which is something I cannot say about the other brands I have tried, Glock, Remington and Colt included.

Are the leaders of NJ stupid or what? Everyone knows that hollow points are safer as they minimize the risk of over penetration, need to shoot a person many more times and less likely to penetrate as much as a FMJ. You would think that an anti-gun State like NJ would force its gun owners to use on JHP ammo. After all, most LEO use JHP all over the USA while our military uses FMJ. Why does NJ insist on using only military ammo for gun carriers? I have never understood this since almost every other State does not have a problem with JHP ammo for its concealed carriers.

I do not recall if you had to list two references in NJ about 10 years ago. I have filled out lots of applications for all sorts of reasons, where I had to list references and only once were they actually contacted and that took almost a year going through what you are now going through. This was for a federal license by Homeland Security for my profession though and nothing to do with guns. I do not recall every having references contacted for a gun permit though. Every five years I am vetted by the TSA and they never contact my references either. Is contacting references mandatory in NJ for a P2P now or is it at the discretion of the local township?

Can't decide so I use both. Tastes like spicy ketchup.

Well, I am very uncomfortable carrying a Glock since all the safeties are on the one thing I want to be safe from. For a 1911 to fire the grip and manual safety would both have to fail. Then the safety notch that stops the trigger from moving too far, would have to fail and somehow the firing pin would have to either become unblocked or moved into line with the hammer, depending on model. That is a heck of a lot of things to have to fail at the same time. I once attended a training class many moons ago, where the instructor took a beat up old 1911 and flung it against a cement wall several times and then showed us that the hammer was still cocked and all the safeties still worked. It is just a mental thing with most people because they can see the hammer cocked. I feel much safer carrying cocked and locked than any striker fired pistol without a hammer. My concern is never that the gun will go off by itself but more that I have seen so many guys grab their falling gun and putting their finger on the trigger when they do so. Around here we often have guys firing guns that are falling from somewhere on them.

Have you asked a local gun store if they can order one for you? Sometimes when I cannot find the model I want I will hunt at the local gun stores. Found one that has been in business for two generations and they seem to be able to find everything I ask for. The guy has connections.

My last handgun purchase was a FNH FNX .45 ACP. I do not consider it a cannon as the recoil is mild with this gun. 15 +1 rounds of .45 goodness and lots of fun at the range. I know that lots of people like Glocks because they are idiot proof but I take that as an insult to my intelligence and skill, rather than a good thing.

A Sig P938 is my main carry gun when I carry a semi auto. Even if the safety came off safe, something that has never happened to me in over 45 years, the trigger pull is heavier than that of a Glock. I am surprised,to read that someone who cannot carry outside their home and is not comfortable carrying the Sig the way it is meant to be carried, would buy this gun? When I lived in NJ I only owned duty sized guns since concealing them was not an issue. When I moved to Florida I was totally unfamiliar with carry guns or carry holsters. Just surprised to see that my gun is enjoyed up there too. It is a fine gun and nothing bad will happen if you carry with one in the chamber. It is not a 1911 with a light trigger. It has a pivoting 8 lb. pull, which is more than striker fired guns. A gun with a manual safety requires you to purposely move it's safety while most guns low you to shoot with doing anything else first. Read up on all the safeties on that gun. I know it looks scary with the hammer back but the firing pin cannot even be touched without first pulling the trigger. All but one of my 12 carry/HD guns have manual safeties.

I do not know the wisdom of becoming a member of a group for which we arm ourselves against; criminals. How can I say it is OK to break the law to protect my family against a yet to be encountered threat and then condemn the man who robs my house to feed his starving children. Sure, he had other choices but so do I and I took advantage of that choice rather than join the criminal ranks, and moved out of NJ. Lo and behold, there are jobs and good schools outside of NJ and even a better life. Family is just an hour and a half away by plane. I would think that the odds are much greater of going to prison for illegally carrying a gun than actually having to need one. Most people do not even know anyone who had to use a gun to defend their lives. Despite the fear mongering of the gun industry to increase their profits, life is not as dangerous as they would like us to believe. I carry a gun because I legally can. I moved so that I could legally carry a gun. My future is not in jeopardy by carrying a gun as it would have been in NJ. However, we all have to do what we have to do to feel safe.

In most other States your flowchart would be simple: Is it called a shotgun and meet Federal laws--->YES - then it is legal. See how easy that was.

Before I fled NJ, I used to live in Old Bridge and commuted to NYC daily. There are express buses and trains close by. It is a nice town to live in and is home to a good gun club.

I carry a HK P2000SK at times, with a LEM trigger and love it. I am an old wheel gun fan who thinks striker fired guns have light triggers without a safety. I feel safer with a SA and manual safety than a gun with all the safeties on the darn thing a safety is supposed to prevent me from pressing in the first place. At my age, my mind is not my best safety. The LEM trigger is the best of both worlds. You get a nice, semi long smooth trigger with no stacking and then hit a wall which then requires more force to fire with a clean break just like a SA trigger. Just let your trigger finger move forward a little and fire again.

I did mine 4 years ago. They were talking about a 90 day delay back then too and I was shocked to get it in 3 weeks. It might have to do with my relationship to some Federal security agencies who just vetted me.

Same here. It is a life altering experience. BTW, it only took me 13 days to get my ccw after I mailed it in. I think you will find the Sig 226 a beast to carry for more than an hour or so. I had one. The P229 is smaller and much more agreeable to being carried for extended times. Life is so much better here among people and a State government that are pro-gun. Until I moved out of NJ did I realize the fundamental difference between there and here. In NJ we fought to reduce or soften the steady stream of anti gun laws. Here, we push for more and more pro gun laws. NJ gun owners are on the defense while here we are on the offense. A big difference that I did not even realize for the first few years. Carrying a gun with me is now as natural as carrying my cell phone and wallet. I could never live in a gun restrictive State again now that I have tasted freedom. I