mikka1

Really? Thanks, good to know. I've been there only twice, second time while buying my first handgun from them, but have never used their range.

One of the banks my friend has a safety box in (it is either BofA or WeFa, nothing else major there in NC) has a specific and explicit provision in their safety box agreement - "NO FIREARMS AND/OR AMMO" I guess it might differ from bank to bank (or maybe even from branch to branch of the same bank).

Thanks everyone, Seems my shortlist so far looks like: Ruger SR22 (main candidate) S&W MP22 Walther PPK/S in 22 Sig P226 Classic 22 I'll definitely need to handle those (and ideally let my wife handle them as well) to make a final choice by the time I get my next permit :-) Might have a chance this weekend - there is an absolutely EXCELLENT range (no insult to NJ&PA ranges by any means) near Charlotte, NC, that has "rent by caliber" policy (at least they used to have it 6 months ago). The idea is that you pay $10-20 (not remember exactly) for a specific caliber and can try as many handguns of this caliber as you want as long as you buy ammo from them :-) As far as I am in Charlotte this weekend, I might go there to give a try to a dozen of 9mms and 22lrs...

LOL, I'd say T-Mobile lacks a section in their business model that talks about customer service, specifically for prepaid (or what they call it Monthly4g) customers, or this section is basically condensed in one expression - "Fugg prepaid clients, they are junk" :-) I encountered with their CS twice last year and both times it was a huuuuge pain in the neck to make everything right with a lot of resistance and lack of willingness not even to help, but just to try to explain what the problem was. On a good side, as I mentioned before, from the technical standpoint TMo is just superb for my needs, a lot better than ATT in my area. Can't complain at all, 100% happy with the service. Seems that AverageJoe does his job extremely well. Sad I can't say the same about his colleagues in front-line CS :-)

SR22 looks good, btw, and the price does not scare me - it seems to be frequently available for around $300. I like how SIG 1911-22 looks, but I'm afraid it will be a little bit on a larger side for my wife. ... Can someone say something about PPK/S in 22 (better something bad, LOL)? :-) This piece looks so great (at least in my view) with James Bond music starting to play in your head when you see it, so I seriously need some very strong reason to forget about it and not even consider as an option...

I'd say she prefers gloves of size L :-) It's still not XL. She seems to be quite comfortable holding Glock 19 without backstraps. I'm looking to spend definitely NOT more than 500 out of the door (so subtract nics, transfer fee/taxes) and we get around 400-450 tops for the price of the handgun. I don't feel like I'm ready for a wheelie, so let it be semi auto. New would be preferred.

Hi everyone, Looking for your input on my potential next handgun. It's time to make my wife to finally go to the range, so I decided that most likely this one will be a 22lr handgun (wee need to start with something, LOL). I have never really looked into rimfire handguns, so I've done my research and basically divided the whole market into the following groups (it's only my understanding though, I might be wrong): 1) Dedicated 22lr handguns that were designed specifically for this caliber in mind, usually very accurate and usually do not look like "real" handgun in its narrow sense. I would put Ruger Mark II/III here, Beretta Neos as well etc. 2) Handguns that are basically younger brothers/sisters of larger caliber handguns. Often look exactly as or at least very close to their older siblings; some of them are reportedly not ideal in terms of operation and less accurate than the ones from group 1. I would put Sig Mosquito, Walther P22 / PPKS and some others into this category. 3) Conversion kits like Kadet for CZ and other ones for Glock. I don't really consider those at this point as they seem to cost almost the same amount as the dedicated handgun which I essentially want. Maybe later. *** My aesthetic preference so far goes towards group #2. I'd really like to have a 22lr handgun that would look ... mm.. like a handgun :-) Therefore my shortlist now consists of two models basically - Sig Mosquito and Walther PPK/S. And here comes the question - when you try to google both, I'd say most (or at least many) of the reports are outright negative. Walther is criticized for some cheap alloys used in PPKs built lately, Mosquito - for its reliability etc. What would be your advice? Any other reliable 22lr handgun that would not look too futuristic like Neos? :-) Am I missing something completely? I also remember someone mentioning SIG P226 Classic 22 lately being some dedicated 22 gun with a possibility to add other kits and make it 9mm or .40. As fas as I am heavily leaning towards P226 as my second next purchase this is particularly interesting, but I was unable to find anything close to what has been mentioned. Any details would be much appreciated Thanks

Darn, I so much want to come (I actually never shot a shotgun before), but not sure if a) I have my shotgun by that time b) I am back from NC...

I use T-Mobile for around 1,5 years now. Before that I used ATT for roughly the same amount of time. Mi first impression when I got a 4g TMo phone was just "Wow. That's fast". I've never ever experienced anything even close to TMo download speeds using ATT in my area. It's even much faster than my cable internet at home. I am also a very big fan of buying phones for the full price and having prepaid plans. TMo has some nice prepaid plans, especially sold through Walmart and especially for those who use the phone for online access primarily, but not for voice. I still pay $30 a month for 5Gb 4g data + 100 voice minutes a month. 100 is really not much, but I have another phone for work, so I am fine with that for the price. I also had an impression of TMo losing signal exactly in the same spots (especially in hilly terrain) where Verizon does. We were even joking with my friend during our trip to Smokies - "You pay $30 for your phone service, I pay nearly $70, so Verizon should be at least 2 times better... Oh, sh*t, no signal as well... What I'm paying for, LOL" Bottom line - I would really recommend TMo in terms of value for money, but should you ever have some issues with your service, their customer service is not bad, it's just F*****G AWFUL. I suppose lots of people just drop TMo service after their very first encounter with TMo CSRs. It's a different story, but I spent 8 (EIGHT!) hours on the phone in total to resolve one minor problem with my account last year. Nobody really gives a damn there.

Thanks, Well, "finding" is not an issue, I have at least two or three colleagues who will be perfectly fine signing such a paper, but how to approach it better? Just come to PD and say what? "You know, I can't reach one of my friends, so maybe you contact this guy instead"? Won't it look too suspicious or too stupid :-)? My PD sent the same questionnaire to the same person literally two weeks after the detective spoke to the very same person over the phone before issuing me my FID. Apparently it's an "automatic" process in my PD - reference listed - send out standard request regardless of the same request sent and filled out by this person 1..2..3..10 times before.

Hi all, I am not sure if that situation does not get resolved by itself soon, but just out of curiosity I started looking at what options I might have. I stopped at my local PD a couple of days ago to check how the things are going with the next portion of my permits as I was afraid that it got stuck at mental health records search exactly as the previous time round, but to my surprise I was told that everything is already in place EXCEPT for one reference letter from my buddy. Here comes an interesting part - I can't get hold of him :-) He lives out of state, pretty far from me to just stop by, but I can't reach him over the phone, he doesn't reply to emails and FB messages etc. He is a freelancer, so I would not be surprised if at some point he makes a decision just to stop working for a month or two, pack his stuff and go somewhere warm or so, that's why I'm not really concerned if something bad might have happened to him. But the question still remains open - with the whole process of obtaining P2Ps being so fragile and complicated I definitely don't want it to get stuck for a long time. I'm sure that stuff could happen from time to time and there are people out there who for whatever reason ran into situations when references listed in the application somehow became "not usable" after application had been filed (got scared to sign a paper etc., but that's probably not my case as he's a great guy and happily signed the same letter several months before for my FID). Is there any formalized process of "replacing" one reference with someone else in the middle of the process? Thanks a lot!

Looking at your home range at the left of your post I think there are some decent sources of ammo in PA. Heritage Guild normally has a decent selection of ammo. Judging by 9mm, they sometimes run out of the cheapest ones like Blazer Brass 115gr, but I've never bought anything in excess of $16-$17 per box of target 9mm there. ~10 minutes to the north from Heritage Guild there is Walmart. YMMV here, but out of 3-4 times I've been there it has been only once when they had no 9mm at all. Several weeks ago I picked 3 boxes of Winchester (100 rds each) for $27 or so. They also have plenty of 223 there. I haven't investigated other calibers as I don't need them yet :-) There is another Walmart closer to Allentown, PA, but also in less than 10 miles from Heritage Guild. And - the pleasant thing - in most cases no ID will be required at all :-)

Sorry, partially my wrong. To answer a question - well, seems yes and no. But afaik they still don't sell any lowers to NJ residents, so to this extent it is definitely a problem as they sometimes have some nice deals.

Have they already started sending stuff to NJ? Based on this I had a feeling (that might be wrong, of course) that they basically blocked any AR-related shipments to NJ "until further notice"... But would be good if I'm wrong.

I listed my _foreign_ employer (yeah, it's kinda complicated, but all legal and consistent with IRS records, I state foreign company as a source of income there as well). Not sure if that was a reason of a long wait (most likely it wasn't) for my FID, but no questions were asked. They stated foreign office address on my P2Ps. I doubt anyone even noticed that :-) ADDED: And I have no idea if they tried to contact my employer, but I know for sure that they contacted both of my out-of-state references - first sending them questionnaires and then contacting them over the phone several months later, just before issuing me FID and P2Ps. They basically went through the same questions from the questionnaire, probably just to reconfirm that those guys exist not only in my vivid imagination.

Any specific suggestions on AR-15 optics on the lower side of the price spectrum for a complete noob? I have a simple red dot from Primary Arms now that were on sale on Black Friday, but was also looking for some optic to try. Given that, the cheaper the better, but obviously not something for $30 that is probably suitable for airsoft only :-) Amazon community seems to like UTG products very much, but I barely heard anything about them outside of Amazon pages. I had the cheapest one for an air BB rifle some time ago, but I wasn't that much impressed of it...

Well, apparently this has been a subject of a VERY heated debate on some of NY online forums. I am personally on your side here, but the wording of FL statutes essentially puts it on the shoulders of your instructor. As far as this company publicly advertises this AS "sufficient for FL CCW", I am fine. If I get a reply from FL stating that my training was not acceptable, I'll make this company quite unhappy :-) (still hopefully having at least my UT CCW in hands). RTSP charges the same $200 and afaik it does not include Utah fee. I only know GFH offering UT courses for $200 with UT fee included. It's my second option actually as overall it's not that bad. If only it was UT/FL combined, I'd probably jump on it right away, as GFH is literally 10 miles from me. Maybe it might be a good idea for Anthony to include a live fire portion and/or whatever required for FL and design such a combined class...

After some time spent figuring out what CCW permit would be better for me - Utah or Florida one - I finally decided to get both, LOL (or at least start with Utah to get PA/DE asap and then add FL permit later on). I looked through some of the websites offering training for those and essentially I was looking for the best price (of course considering travel time as well - no reason to fly to Utah even if it'd be free of charge there). Don't get me wrong here, I'm not trying to save pennies on _training_ - it's a different story and I'm actively looking for some serious instruction to get maybe this spring, but rather on _getting a compliant certificate to have a CCW permit as inexpensive as possible_. I essentially found two possible options: 1) Legal Heat - http://www.mylegalheat.com/classes/c/ They often have UT CCW classes in PA, sometimes pretty close to PA/NJ border (e.g. today they have a class in Hamburg and this Friday they go to Harrisburg, both not that far from NJ). They charge $75 for the class itself + $10-20 for fingerprinting + a fee if paid with a CC. On a bad side: they advertise their course to be sufficient to get UT, PA and AZ permits, but NOT FL 2) Damon Finch - http://www.damonfinch.com/id77.html They offer combined NYS/UT/FL class and charge $100 for it inclusive of fingerprinting for UT, notary and photos. This Thursday they have an evening class in Newburgh, NY which is ~60 miles from Newark. *** So far I am inclined to choose #2 and go there this Thursday while I still have some time and not much of a workload after Christmas. I had some concerns around the validity of this course for FL CCW permit without a live fire portion, so I gave them a call and explicitly asked if this one was valid for FL or not and their answer was "Yes, it is valid". Given that they've been offering this training for quite some time, they would've probably been caught if it had been otherwise. Any thoughts? Anyone heard of these Damon Finch and Legal Heat classes? They have some spots for Thursday, so if anyone wants to join me and go to Newburgh together, I'd be happy to. Thanks

This whole situation just makes my brain explode. "It is legal, we know that it is legal, but we will still not sell item X to you, because we are afraid that if we do that, we might be sued by YYY despite the fact that it was perfectly legal". F****g amazing. We also know it's legal for businesses to basically refuse goods or services to anyone they don't like somehow, _unless_ there is an element of discrimination in it (at least I believe so, but IANAL). Why don't NJ residents try to sue those stores refusing to sell items to us despite them being perfectly legal and compliant both to Federal and State regulations for discriminative policy based on current residence? I would also try to add the attempt of interfering with executing the 2nd amendment rights to the lawsuit... Is it a complete BS? Most likely yes. But as long as they are afraid of State suing them for BS which is legal, why don't make them afraid of State residents for doing exactly the same? I know this might sound stupid, but in the end of the day NJ is really a *home* for many people here who, despite all talks, will probably never stand up and escape somewhere. There are lots of stupid state-level regulations on the shelves, but at least they are legitimately passed, they are on paper and one can prepare and be ready for them. Why allow some businesses to randomly make up other arbitrary "NJ-specific regulations" that are *stricter* than the one that exist in reality and ultimately get away with it? :-) (Sorry for after-midnight BS thoughts... :-) )

njJoniGuy, thanks a lot, I somehow missed that there is income-based calculation of NJ use tax. For my income bracket the number is quite low, so it definitely makes sense to use it instead of going through every single item... Every new day on this forum brings some new knowledge, lol :-)

I hate to be the first one to ask such a question and... well... I would try to formulate it in the most *delicate* way, but do you really keep track of ALL your out-of-state online purchases in order to pay use tax an all purchased items later on and if so, how do you do that? I mean, I can possibly understand keeping track (and paying use tax down the road) of buying some expensive camera online for several thousand dollars - you don't normally make such purchases every other day, so it's easy. But I buy nearly everything online these days simply because it is convenient for most of non-urgent purchases, some of my orders are as low as $10 for some clothing item bought with some small online store and I simply don't see how to keep track of all of those for tax purposes. It's obviously not that I encourage any of you to commit tax fraud by not reporting some major out-of-state purchases, but frankly speaking I know very few people around who try to report ALL online purchases... so my question is how you keep track of all of it?

This kind of reminds me of my home city of Moscow in mother Russia, LOL. It's north there. Freezing temperatures sometimes last for 3+ months in a given year. Almost EVERY year. Yet _every_ f**king winter the day it starts snowing for the first time is a day of citywide transportation collapse. The whole city just gets stuck in endless traffic jams. Municipal services in charge of cleaning roads are not prepared as it has AGAIN been soooo unexpected - really, who expects snow in Moscow in December?!... That very day people form huge lines to local tire shops to change their summer tires to winter ones, but there are still people who drive throughout the winter using summer (even not all-season) tires. Ashamed to tell, but I did it once as well on FWD car which was quite a remarkable experience, LOL. But now I'm not afraid to end up in French Alps without chains or winter tires in a rented car as that kind of experience is one that's not easy to forget...

EMT_SAR, thanks, I actually ended up sending a message to Walmart Corporate asking to clarify their policy as I was unable to find it anywhere online, but at the same time guys at Eason Walmart apparently were not morons, but were really showing me the screen on their computer with a map that definitely looked legit (in terms of that they have not made this up by themselves)... I am not holding my breath expecting some reasonable answer (or probably an answer at all), but it costs me nothing to give it a try. Would be still quite strange if Wally just decided to exclude more than 35MM Americans (population of only NJ, NY and MA, but there were other states in the list as well) from their firearm sales client base without even trying to investigate this matter a little further...

MedicYeti, would you mind sharing information with me as well? Exactly the same reasons as brocglock23 described

+1, I would also very much love to know that. IANAL, but I personally think that you are absolutely right and fully agree with your point of view - the whole responsibility lies on an in-state FFL dealer that actually transfers the firearm. Just an observation - when a NJ dealer completes a P2P for a handgun, it says _nothing_ about the actual store where this handgun has been purchased, only about transferring FFL... The only immediate risk for the selling store that I see is the one that they might send a gun to some NJ FFL, FFL will decide later NOT to modify a gun for whatever reason (decides that it is too hard to do etc.) thus sending it back to the seller, so the seller will end up paying shipping fees, restocking fees etc...