So the old [GUN] thread finally hit page 100 after like seven years.
Since I'm the current resident "enthusiast" (gun nut) around these parts, I'll go ahead and take a shot at a new thread.
For real, Organichu made an excellent OP six and a half years ago and it still rings true so I'm going to link it here.
https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/129950/guns-fire-everything/p1
This thread is for discussing firearms. It's welcome to sport shooters, collectors, hunters, and home defenders alike.
This thread is not for judging someone for owning a gun, debating the US Second Amendment, or telling someone they've bought the wrong gun and they shoot poorly. Also to be clear this is NOT a gun control thread either. Please make your own thread for that. Feel free to discuss safeties on guns, gun safes, etc though.
Feel free to post pics of your firearms, youtube videos of good reviews, targets at the range, etc.
I will start with what I like to shoot and what I own.
I am an avid blackpowder enthusiast. I typically do not hunt with a modern cartridge rifle and prefer to use a traditional bow and arrow setup (non compound) or a blackpowder sidelock muzzleloader.
I have a Thompson Center Hawken caplock rifle in .50cal that I'm about to get re-bored to .54
I also have a CVA Flintlock Hawken rifle in .54cal
I own a 1943 WW2 era Mosin Nagaint infantry rifle (the one from Enemy at the Gates) too.
My field/survival rifle is a Chiapps Little Badger folding single shot .22, and my home defense weapon is a Canik TP9 SA 9mm pistol.
If you're new to firearms or interested in them, this is the thread to check out. We love giving advice and we've all got opinions about which firearm is best for which situation.
Case in point, I am not a big fan of the AR platform. It's unnecessary for what I want in a firearm, so I can't give much advice on those. I can give a ton of advice on revolvers and muzzleloaders though!
Posts
For shame.
fixed
Good man.
I'm probably getting a .22 pistol because, really, don't need much else for home defense that will likely never be used.
Please buy a shotgun instead.
Why?
Having used both quite often, I'd rather not.
Shotguns are easier to aim under stress than the handgun, are more likely to stop an attacked with one hit vs. a small caliber pistol (which I don't think anyone would recommend for self defense), can also be used as a club if push really comes to shove.
Even if you're experienced in both a shot gun is overall a much better choice in almost every way.
Cheaper for both the gun itself and ammunition.
Louder/flashier which is what you actually want for home defense.
Safer in that you're less likely to accidentally kill someone you don't want to and more likely to hit your target in a panic.
Less likely someone small will find it and play with it.
This will do a better job than anyone really of giving you advice about talking to your kid about firearms.
https://eddieeagle.nra.org/
I'd say 10 is a pretty good age to learn responsibility.
I think I was probably between 8 and 10 when I got my first firearm, a break action .410 single shot.
Both are easy to aim under conditions and at the distance I need it for.
One is a quicker draw than the other.
Let's just assume for a minute I might have had training under stress situations and made a decision based on experience, and I'd greatly appreciate it.
So what kind of .22 are you thinking about?
Personally I like the 1911 .22lr versions because they're heavy and have a good feel to them. I also like .22 revolvers.
we're on PAGE 1 people.
If JRMX wants a .22 for home defense then we'll help recommend a .22 for home defense. Hell I have a 9mm for home defense.
I also have a 10lb 5.5 foot mosin nagant with an attached bayonet beside my bed for home defense.
I do like the Colts quite a bit, even though ours were a little janky (army issue, plenty used) and got difficult to really pinpoint the shots at 50 meters (Though I'd imagine that's part for the course with a small caliber pistol). I'd like to feel the firing of something that hasn't been abused for 20 years.
I shot a Ruger .22 (SR I think?) at the range a few weeks ago and kinda liked it as well!
The Ruger .22 is a good little pistol. It's cheap and sturdy.
my only .02 is I'd at least consider the 9mm as well before you make a final decision, but the Ruger .22 is definitely a good choice. If you live in a state that allows it, it's pretty easy to modify the gun to accept 20 round magazines.
I've thought about a good 9 as well. I'm open to giving it a shot because, well hell why not? I'll be hitting the range next weekend to check out a few more. I've discovered a few things:
1. I really like the control of the .22. It's like a surgical instrument. My biggest thing is control.
2. Not a fan of Glocks. They don't feel "good".
I'm not sure about Nebraskan gun laws but I can't imagine they're stringent at all.
All good, understandable.
Yeah, I've got quite a bit of experience with firearms, from .22s to chain-fed grenade launchers.
This was my first gun too!
I would also look at the Ruger Mark IV, as that's the first Ruger Mark series 22 LR pistol that has a quick toolless take down. The Ruger Mark series are universally considered one of the best 22 LR pistols ever made and the Mark IV solves the biggest complaint, that it was a pain to take down for cleaning. If you want an exceptionally accurate 22, the Ruger Mark IV is it.
I was at my LGS yesterday and, having no experience with handguns, damned if the PPQ wasn't the most natural feeling of the 20 or so handguns I handled (single and doublestack compact or subcompact 9mms).
It's a bit too large though, and I hate the way Walther slides are huge. Conversely, I learned that CZ has the opposite problem and the slide is only big enough for a thumb-and-forefinger rack.
Also, the Smith and Wesson Shield has some issues with the slide release. Bummer.
Also found that, concealability of a single-stack aside, I think I'm going to have to either eat tradeoff to get a doublestack that fits my grip, or train to get over it.
But not too soon, because I just bought a CZ Scorpion carbine and that is awesome
I also wasn't being judgemental, I thought it sounded like more of a question as well.
Nah, just trying to get a convo going.
I'm pretty aware that a .22 is essentially "head or nothing", and I'm cool with that.
Not that I need a suppressed pistol in my life, but interesting nonetheless.
Law and Order ≠ Justice
ACNH Island Isla Cero: DA-3082-2045-4142
Captain of the SES Comptroller of the State
I also really like the new Walther Creed. It seems to have the same ergonomics of the PPQ that I already have but is a couple hundred cheaper. If you want to go with a pistol for home defense I would probably recommend it (at least for now, until I get my hands on one but I really like my PPQ) and some defensive ammo.
The Standard Manufacturing six shot pepper box .25ACP is right in my wheelhouse. I have a thing for compact pistols and it's a pretty cool concept. From a utilitarian standpoint it's not that great, six shots of .25ACP for about $300 where a Hi Point in 9x19 or .45 can be had for about $150 or cheaper.
I've liked those Cobalt Kinetics ARs since I saw them in the videos from last years Shot Show.
I also like The Fix from Q. It's an interesting super lightweight manual bolt action in .308. It's apparently lighter than a bare bones AR 15.
There are some interesting optics that were at industry day as well.
The Crye Six12 is still as cool as ever, but still not released.
The Hudson H9 looks like a futuristic video game 1911, which is cool.
/puts down camera
/puts shirt back on
absolutely.
So to start, I have the Chiappa Little Badger
http://chiappafirearms.com/f.php?id=26
It's a single shot, break action survival rifle. It folds down to about 18 inches by six inches, and comes in .17wmr, 22lr, and 22 magnum. I went with the .22lr because it's easy to get in large quantities and doesn't take up much space. If I had to do it all over, I'd get the .22 mag and a chamber adapter, but it is what it is. I wanted a complete small game rifle that I can use to hunt, harvest, skin, and cook wild game if needed.
It also has a threaded barrel to accommodate a silencer. I'll get one eventually, preferably after the hearing protection act passes and a tax stamp is no longer required.
I've put roughly 100 rounds through it so far and it does best with standard or subsonic ammo. I prefer 20 grain subsonic and 40 grain standard. I've tried some 60 grain high velocity and it's a little too hot for the rifle. I'm afraid it would eventually damage it so I stopped using it entirely. It's too damn loud anyway. It comes stock with a quad rail, a small non standard sized rail behind the triggger (useless, remove it) and plastic sights. I'm going to replace the sights and the rails with actual machined aluminum rails eventually. With the stock sights I can usually get a good three inch group at up to 25 yards, so its a squirrel machine.
Here's mine as it sits now.
I had the paracord lying around and did a simple wrap from an online tutorial. I won't go into detail cause it's easy to google. I just wrapped the upper part of the barrel to give it a rest if I want to put it on something or have a grip in cold weather.
The light is a quick detach. I didn't want to sink a lot of money into the parts so I went with this one and it's worked out well.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00E0BNCX2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
The only downside to this set up is that it's much harder to fold and takes up more space. I can (sort of) side mount the light and still top mount the sight, but when I get the aluminum rails they'll be extended four inches so that will solve the problem and it'll still be portable. The light has a standard on and a strobe and it's very bright.
Here's the sight I went with.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00457SRBI/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
It's got like six brightness settings and two colors with four different reticle options. For the money it's worked pretty well but I don't know if it's holding aim consistently. I also picked up a red dot sight as a secret santa gift from Bogart so I may switch to that one and put this on my pistol crossbow, also from Bogart.
I bought a small cleaning kit that breaks down to put in the pouch but it broke the first time I tried using it. My home cleaning kit works fine because it's stronger metal and I've had trouble getting a bore snake to pull through. Still looking for a dependable packable cleaning option. Open to ideas.
Here's the pouch
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00Y9JJQTE/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
as you can see from my picture above, it has some leftover velcro at the bottom so I need to find a way to trim it so that doesn't catch. It's got a padded cheek rest on one side and a small zipper pouch on the other. The velcro ammo holders won't hold 22 and I haven't been able to find one online, so I'll make one using ranger bands and velcro it to the rifle at some point, or I'll velcro something there.
Inside the pouch I have a button compass, a firesteel, and a small skinning knife that I've used on one deer so far and cut my hand in the process so it worked.
That's the base setup. There's a few other people out there who didn't use the pouch and zip tied the knife to the rifle. I tried that too but I lose my rails going that route.
I actually took this rifle on my first squirrel hunt this past weekend with open sights. The plastic sights tend to get knocked around easily and I took one shot at one of three squirrels I saw and missed.
Realistically I'm going to put a small rimfire scope on there, I'm just looking for one with rings that don't also block the open sights just in case I need them.
The reflex sight was mostly purchased for the price and use on either my canik or the crossbow.
The binary trigger is interesting, but like a bump fire stock a solution to a dumb problem. And it's about five seconds away from a BATFE policy letter making it illegal.
http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2017/01/18/aliens-meets-cobalt-kinetics-shot-2017/
A round counter. It only counts the rounds in the magazine, not including the chamber. I've seen better airsoft ones. Still, cool looks and hopefully this gets improved. edit- the cool thing about electronic components is that once all the physical stuff is made the developers can develop it and add more functions. I have a round counter for airsoft which was cool, but it was missing a feature I wanted. And the company put it in later with no changes to the hardware.
http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2017/01/18/see-nite-sights-shot-2017/
The See All sight has had tritium added to it to make it usable at all times. That's cool. The See All sight is small, light powered reflex sight kinda? They're small, cheap and reliable, so I've been wanting one for fun. The tritium version seems longer, it's not quite as compact as the light powered version.
The KSG-25 is very cool. It's so excessive. I wonder how long it is. edit- 165mm, which is excellent as that is just over the minimum length for NZ.