Old Dog

And yet the S&W 642 is the biggest seller out of all the Smith and Wesson models and revolvers remain very popular much longer than the 1911 has been. While it is true that a revolver requires a greater level of shooting skill due to the heavy DA trigger and lower round count, those like me who were raised on revolvers, can shoot any semi auto well as the trigger control we learned on our heavy DA triggers translates very well to the lighter and shorter triggers on semi autos. However, it does not work the other way around which is why a lot of shooters do not like revolvers. Us shootist like them just fine.

Although I own a few, this is the only one that looks nice:

Finally a reasoned answer. So much tough talk by people who never fired a shot in anger. It has been my experience that there is a large gap between what people say and what they do. Go ahead and shoot someone who is no longer a threat and your life is over too. You family will suffer and you will end up crying in jail. We had Zimmerman down here shoot someone and his life is ruined and he cried himself to sleep in jail every night. I bet if he had it to do all over again he would just call the police and go home. Luckily here in Florida under the Castle Doctrine anyone who forcibly enters your home is presumed to pose a threat and you do not have to prove intent of the intruder. However despite that protection there are lots of conditions. If you leave a window or door open and they enter that way all bets are off. If you shot an intruder who is on your lanai or patio or anyplace that is not the main structure of your home, all bets are off. Even if you shoot the intruder and it looks like you went overboard, you will be sued despite the law that protects you from civil suits in cases of justifiable self defense. There is also a gotcha in that law in that it is not uncommon for the prosecutor to just decide not to prosecute without formally declaring it justifiable self defense. That way they can prosecute later if evidence turns up to the contrary. This in turn leave you open to a civil suit which can be more devastating than a criminal one. Best advice is to just let the guy go and be thankful that your good life gets to stay that way. It may feel good to pump someone with lead but I suffered for years after getting back from Nam and can tell you that afterwards it does not feel so good no matter how justified.

So if I follow this logic, if they bought clothes at Macy's and cold medicine at CVS, those places would be considered unsafe and a hangout for gangbangers? I am sure criminals and undesirables shoot at the ranges that are close to where they live, even in nice areas. When I lived in NJ I bought all my handguns from Shore Shot and took a few new shooters there to buy their first gun. This was about 10 years ago and the service was great and they were easy to deal with over the phone. I would call, fax a copy of my FID and then pick up the gun when they got it in. No deposit necessary. I accept that things can change but pointing fingers at them, no matter what their current reputation is, simply because some gangbangers were going to go there but never made it is stretching it a little bit.

Do not want to rain on your parade but I had a neighbor who planned on doing as you say as far as spending time here. After the first year it got to be a hassle for the wife to come down for weekends or short stays and he soon discovered that around here you either were single or married and did not fit into the social scene with either since his wife was gone most of the time. Then he began to miss here and feel excluded from couples type things and sold his home here and went back to Long Island. We see quite a few couples buy homes here with similar plans and then pack it up and move back home once the novelty wears off and the reality of the long trip to Florida and the many days apart take their toll. Once again, not to be negative but unless both the husband and wife come here together we do not see many success stories with one living here while the other commutes when they can. We even had one friend whose wife got promoted to management and lost her long union vacation and could not visit as much as she had originally planned so they sold the house here and went back up north. Just saying to think about it before you make the leap and if you do move here, welcome. I work for a NJ company who is also incorporated in Florida and the lack of income taxes was like a big raise. The cost of living is so much cheaper here too. Labor like painters and other craftsmen is half the price it is in NJ. Many have more than one job due to low wages and are willing to work for less than you would to put food on their tables. I was paying over $200 a month for someone to mow my lawn and trim my shrubs in NJ. Here, where I have more land and landscaping, I pay $40 a month. It also took me a while to get used to the no restriction gun laws down here. I kept asking if this and that was legal or not and they would laugh at me and say why wouldn't a 100 round AR drum be illegal? Sorry for the above warning but every year we see people who do not move here full time, move back north for various reasons. In 3 years I have had two different neighbors who bought the home with the same idea as you. Seems that they get lonely, things change or whatever and then they move. Hope it works our for you though. Just proceed with eyes wide open because the initial thrill can mess with clear thinking and maintaining two residences is something people here complain about all the time.

If I recall correctly, no. Once the threat ceases you cannot use deadly force. He can turn around and just walk away and if you shoot him you will go to jail and he or his family will sue you in civil court. So keeping someone at gun point would be, well, pointless. I would not try a citizen's arrest as that is tricky business and often backfires. Do not listen to anyone who suggests that you shoot him so there is only one side of the story because the evidence will provide the other side of the story and that may be more damning than the story told by a criminal with a long rap sheet.

CT and NY are real close to NJ so I would be worried if I still lived up there. What I love about Florida, besides our great weather and lack of City and State income taxes is that even despite the national focus on us after the Zimmerman shooting we refused to change our Stand Your Ground law and no one talks about gun control. In fact it is refreshing to see billboards line the highways and ads in the major newspapers advertising, Guns, Guns, Guns. I am proud to be a southerner, you'se all!

Wrong approach. I buy due to want not need. If I bought according to need I would not own a single gun.

Surprised that your hand did not fall off. Seriously, any full grown healthy male should be able to handle a 9mm, 40 and .45. If you have played football or other contact sport, a hit in those is much worse than even the recoil from a lightweight .44 mag revolver. I have had a few new shooters tell me that they thought the recoil from a .45 1911 or Sig P220 was less than the 9mm compact carry guns they owned. I like the .45 and have been shooting it for about 42 years. It is the only caliber that I actually used against other humans so I trust it and know what it can do. The recoil is also more of a push straight back and I find it easier to control than a .40 cal. The 1911 platform has always been a favorite of mine and although I sold off my Officer and full sized 1911's I do carry the Sig P938 and P238 at times and they are similar in certain aspects. I used to carry a Colt Defender and New Agent but they were heavy for their capacity and ammo fussy so I sold them. My full sized 1911 ended up collecting dust in my gun safe so I sold that too. After 42 years of shooting them I am kind of been there done that with the 1911 and yet I still want to buy one again.

Often overlooked is the fact that you can learn a lot about self defense and shooting from watching action movies. It is not only informative but also cheaper than taking lessons from a professional. Here are just some things I learned over this long weekend: 1. When your gun is empty you either throw it at the guy you are trying to shoot or just toss it away. 2. When you shoot someone indoors try to make sure he is standing in front of a window so that eh force of the bullet will knock him backwards through the window rather than just slam him against the wall. 3. The gun manufacturer's stated number of rounds for the magazine is much like the weight limit on ladders and is a conservative estimate. Judging from what I saw you can easily count on your gun holding a lot more rounds than advertised. 4. You are more accurate when rolling and jumping rather than shooting from a stable position. This also forces the bad guys to miss you even if they are all shooting full automatics and you have just a revolver. 5. Do not forget to cock your hammer, even if it does no have one so that the bad guy can hear the noise it makes and know you mean business. 6. Wear a bulletproof vest and if shot, pretend you are dead for dramatic effect. 7. Make sure that when you shoot you jab the gun in the direction you are shooting for each shot to give the bullet extra velocity. 8. Hold the gun sideways for the kill shot. 9. Remember, one shot is all it takes to stop the bad guy unless you are mad in which case you can shoot him until your gun is empty which can be a very long time if you have a high cap magazine. 10. Last but not least, a Glock is more than enough to defeat a gang using AR-15's, Uzis and assorted full automatic weapons because only you can hit what you aim for and everyone else misses. I posted this here as I did not see a humor section but then realized that the section about NJ gun laws was the joke section.

Other than the free ones I have been given by people who no longer want a gun in their house, it would be my former Cobra .22 mag. derringer which I bought for a Cowboy gun display in my man cave when I owned a Colt SAA gun. Sold the Colt as I discovered that the grips on cowboy guns are not for me and it was too expensive for just display (replaced with a $65 replica that looks real).

Oh, when I saw the topic I thought it would be about all you poor souls who cannot carry a gun when leaving your home due to NJ's gun laws. Well, it could be. I can picture a group of you approaching State legislators chanting "Brains" in search of one with any.

Good going. Do not be like my friend who joined and then never had time to attend any matches and was afraid to shoot in any because he never did so before. Ended up never becoming a full member and forfeited his fee. Now he lives near me in Florida (small world) and although he can carry he does not even own a gun any more. I think he is afraid of guns as he used to store his gun at home disassembled in a gun safe.

One of the posters hit the nail on the head and a poll I recently did on another gun forum confirms it. The majority of gun owners do not still own their first gun. In fact, the last three people I taught to shoot last year got rid of their first gun within a few months after agonizing for months over which first gun to get. There is a big difference in shooting a gun for a short time at a range and shooting it long term. As one poster mentioned, you can easily spend more on renting guns and buying ammo than you will spend on a gun. Basing your decision on your first gun by shooting it for a hour at the range is the same as buying shoes based on trying them out in the store. You may find that they hurt your feet after wearing them for a few hours. First find out what is the largest caliber you can shoot comfortably. That will depend on how physical a guy you are. To tell the truth there is no reason why a healthy male cannot handle a 9mm with proper training. I teach senior citizens, many of them woman, to shoot 9mm. Then find a gun that fits your hand comfortably and allows you to put the flat of your trigger finger on the trigger. Do not worry too much about how the trigger feels. The differences do not make much of a difference to someone who learns to shoot properly. Buy a good brand. Cheap guns are cheap for a reason. Something I recommend but rarely followed is to take a lesson with a qualified trainer. It will end up being cheaper in the long run and you will learn what you like and how to shoot well. Once you learn to shoot well, the gun does not matter that much unless you are into bulls-eye shooting. The ability to shoot small groups using slow fire is not going to help you in a self defense situation. Trust me on this. Good luck.

Some mags need to be slammed in with the heel of your hand. I have a few guns like that and I have pinched many a hand drawing blood doing this.

Just keep in mind that stippling will often limit your ability to sell the gun. Although we sometimes think we will never sell our guns, we usually do. Not that you will never be able to sell it, just that it limits those interested in the gun to only those who like stippling and the type of stippling you like. A better option in my opinion is grip decals. I have Talon rubber grips for my XDs that fit like a glove. They stick on and then you heat them with a hair dryer and they soften so that they can be pushed into all the little grooves of the original grip. Very thin and easily removed if you no longer want them. They also make them in a sandpaper type material. However if you are looking for a cool factor rather than just a good gripping surface, stippling is the way to go although I have yet to see any that I think look good.

There are more 10-22's out there than any other .22 rifle made. Nothing bad about it at all. My problem is that I do not enjoy shooting .22's. There is no recoil and for me half the fun of shooting is the big blast, bang and recoil. I owned one when I lived in NJ and used it for some shooting matches that allowed a .22 to save money as I was shooting competitions every Saturday and Sunday. That gets expensive. I had bought the new 10-22 takedown when it first came out but sold it without ever shooting it. When I have a new firearm and have no desire to run right out and shoot it, it is not a gun I want to keep and sadly that was the way it was with the rifle. I shoot for stress relief and a .22 does not do much for me. Now a 3.3" XDs .45 and .357 revolvers are stress relievers. In NJ my favorite long gun to shoot was not my AR, which I seldom shot for the same reason I do not enjoy a .22. It was a 7mm magnum. When I shot it guys would come over from the other side of the range to see what was making all that noise. If you like a .22 you cannot do better than the 10-22.

I just bought a package of 3 acrylic paint pens at my local craft shop in white, bright yellow and orange. That is what I use. They have a Sharpie marker pointed tip making it very easy to re-paint a dot or pain the front ramp on a revolver. Remember to first clean the area with alcohol first.

Shave? I shoot the whiskers off of my face. I have been using an electric razor for about 40 year or whenever they were invented. I do not have a heavy beard and went through Vietnam without shaving. I think my whiskers started growing in when I was about 21 or so and that is when I started shaving. By then my wife had more shaving experience than I had and gave me pointers.

If I did that I would not have owned some really great guns. Despite buying a few guns that I ended up selling a few weeks after buying them, I still recommend that you buy what you want based on knowing the kind of things you like in a gun. There are just a lot of good guns made that will never be rental guns. Many of the new carry guns are made to be carried a lot and shot little so they do not make good rental guns due to their inability to take the abuse that rental guns are subjected to. People are always asking to rent them in at the local ranges but the people there just tell them that they are not suitable for high round counts that rental guns are subjected to each year. They will also tend to be the most popular guns which is not the same as saying the best guns; just most popular at the time. :)Ranges . In other words, the kinds and models of rental guns is pretty much going to be a very small subset of all the guns out there and if you are OK with being limited to only a small selection of guns then only buy the ones you can shoot first. I am a little different. My car and my current home were bought on the internet sight unseen. I know what I want in the things I purchase so I rarely have to try them out first. Plus trying something first is not a guarantee that you will like it later. I have lots of shoes that felt great in the store but were not comfortable after wearing them a few days. Same with mattresses and cars.

Owned one with about 3000 round through it with no problems. They shake, rattle and roll which is what makes them reliable. However, in a typical sized home I found a handgun to be a much better choice for many reasons after taking a few defense courses. It seems that on the internet people just repeat what they read about recommending a shotgun and a lot of people are attracted to them for their power, belief that they will not penetrate walls as much or that they do not require much training or marksmanship to hit your target. All it took for me was to practice in my home once to realize that in certain sections I would hit the wall if I had to spin around 180 degrees to engage a target and that I had to lower the shotgun every time I needed to open a door, flick a light switch or use my cell phone to just name a few things that I needed one hand free for. I also saw many a homeowner bring their home defense shotguns to shotgun matches only to see them forget to rack them after the first shot under the simple stress of time. Very easy to shoot at the range but when under stress you need a lot of practice to be good with one. A shotgun would be good for a safe room in a home and that is how I used mine. I kept it in my safe room but kept a 1911 .45 in my night table. Much easier to negotiate the house, open the sliding glass doors, etc. with one hand free. YMMV

I do not live in NJ but own a P938. Although it has a single action trigger pull it is about 8lbs which is very heavy for a SA gun. The heavy trigger pull causes problems with many shooters due to the amount of force needed in relation to the weight of the gun. It took me a few ranges sessions to stop shooting low with it and even then I have to remember where to put my finger on the trigger. Try the M&P Shield. Much cheaper and probably the best of the small 9's out there. P.S. As my local gun store owner told me, it is not practical to rent out small guns as they are not made to take the kind of abuse and amount of shooting that a range rental gun takes. That is why you rarely see small guns for rent.

I have owned and shot all but the Beretta PX4. While I have owned a lot of DA/SA guns I no longer am a big fan of them for self defense/home defense purposes. I bet that you shot all or most of your shots in single action which is OK for fun range shooting. However with a DA/SA gun the first trigger pull is very heavy and most will not shoot their first shot accurately. I used to throw my first shot away when training which is simply just shot it quickly into the ground so that my gun went into SA mode fast. Most people I know with DA/SA guns shoot them only in SA mode at the range and will be in for a surprise if they ever have to shoot it for HD. Even those who shot the first shot in DA do not practice enough with it in that mode since only the first shot is fired in DA. I used to go through a few mags shooting it DA in every range session to get used to the DA pull and still it was never as good as the subsequent SA trigger pulls. For my defensive guns I want to a 6-7 lb trigger pull that stays the same all the time. It does take lots of practice to transition from DA to SA mode. You can try that yourself at the range by shooting defensively and not slow fire for groups. Most people shoot groups which is ok for target guns but unfortunately they do it with their defensive guns not realizing how that promotes habits that will slow them down in a gun fight. Anyway enough of my feelings on DA/SA. I like the Glock 17 and recommend it to people although with your 15 round NJ limit I would go with the Glock 19. It is a perfect size and the most popular of the Glocks. I have bought 6 Glocks and own none now as I just never could get comfortable with them. I do like their reliability and have found that HK and the less expensive FNH guns are also very reliable. Take a look at the FNX-9. You can set it in a DA/SA mode with and without a manual safety or in SA mode with a safety. It gives you choices, comes with 3 mags and is more reliable than most of the Glocks I owned. Yeah, Glocks jam too. For about $30 more than a Glock the FNX-9 is more to my liking and worth a look. You will find that almost all posts about the gun and brand are very positive. On the high end a new model HK like the P30 is worth a look. Not only can you change out the back straps but also the grips so you get an almost custom fit. I liked the FS-92 but the grip was too big for my hand. In DA mode I could not put my trigger finger on the face of the trigger and that promotes bad first shots when combined with a heavy DA pull. Great gun and never jammed on me. Probably would fit you hands better than mine. With our Military using them for so long all the kinks have been worked out of the design so if there are any problems it is going to be a rare mfg defect and not anything to do with a new design. The Sig P226 is also a classic and choice of some special forces but hold out for a new version with the SRT (Short reset trigger). After you shoot you just let up on the trigger a small fraction of an inch and it resets and is ready to fire. Can never go wrong with a Sig. Take a look at the shorter P229 which is my favorite. I tend to like shorter barrels as they balance better in my hand and are fast to get on target but that is only applicable if you are going to use it for defense and take training classes with it. For shooting at static targets any gun will do that shoots straight and fits your hand. That is about all I can add. If you want a lighter reliable gun that you can use as a DA/SA or SA cocked and locked, look up the FNX-9. Their new model is the striker fired FNS9 but I am not a fan of striker fired guns. Like hammers for several reasons that have to do with safety. If you are committed to the four you mentioned I would go with your top choice of the FS-92 in any of its formats as you cannot go wrong with it. If you want what the elite military units use rather than the common grunt Beretta then consider the P226. Sigs have easier to rack slides, are very accurate and soft shooting. Reliable as heck too. If you get a chance, shoot an HK. They are my favorites, even more than my beloved Sigs and two of my carry guns are Sigs.

Reminds me of something I read last year. You know you are old when young men stop fearing you. How true.

If that is the case then go bigger. The Shield will allow her to get a full grip but is still a small gun. I am sure that after she holds of shoots a subcompact where her pinkie does not fit or barely fits, she will want something larger. Sub compacts recoil more and are harder to shoot than larger guns. They are poor choices for HD and range use as all the recoil is felt in a very small area and there is a lot more of it because the gun is so small and light and does not absorb it. I vote for the Shield.