Been gun shopping, any suggestions?

Yea...if you have a kid. Lock your gun up. Pretty sure during the AWB era, some legislators passed asinine tort and criminal liability laws for failure to secure a gun. In fact, I know Maryland has such a law. Don't depend on safeties to prevent your child from improperly using the firearm.

 

Oh no, I keep it the fuck away from them. But kids are resourceful and sneaky, and all it takes is one little moment of not paying attention for all hell to break lose, and it makes me feel a bit better about having it on my night stand at night. I remember what I was like as a kid. Any extra step helps. Also, see previous comments about it forcing you to learn a proper grip. Grip safeties are not the end all be all, but I find nothing wrong with them and they do serve as a good training aid. So, don't assume that one reason for liking them is the whole reason.

 

I don't think anyone here is relying on the grip safety alone to keep kids from using the gun. I think we're just saying it's a little extra security if a worse-case scenario should happen. It's not like we're buying the Springfields and saying "Ok, it has a grip safety. I have nothing to worry about. I think I'll store it under little Susie's pillow instead of a gun safe".

Seriously. We're merely saying we prefer the grip safety and we prefer the XD & XDm weapons over the Glocks. Nothing more, nothing less.

Chillax and have a cigarette bro.

 

Well, got me one today...... Glock 23 .40s&w

It was used (very little) $299 .

 

Beautiful. Now you've gotta hook yourself up with a few hundred rounds of ammo and some training from a reputable instructor.

Wal-Mart is selling Winchester white box .40 S&W in 100-round bulk pack boxes. I'd swing by there and pick up some after work.

After that you're going to want to get a dozen magazines, a smooth trigger, Vickers controls and a good IWB holster.

Pretty soon after that you'll sell your wife into prostitution to support your habit. Ammo is expensive.

Shooting
It's a lonely hobby.​

 

Well, I got 100 rounds at the gun shop> $28. Off to the range in a few minutes....

 

Nice. Can't really go wrong with a Glock, and sounds like you got a good deal. Let us know how it shoots for you.

 

For what it's worth I just picked up a used Springfield XDm 3.8 sw.40 with two 16 rd mags, trijicon night sights, prp trigger kit, 4 backstraps, case, Springfield kit for $380. Gonna pass the XD to the wife for her ccw & I'll use this. Gun is in near new condition so I'm happy.

Come back & update us on the glock additions, thoughts etc. I'm not a glock fan at all, but I'd enjoy seeing your thoughts & additions! :thumbsup:

 

seriously? i can't image even imagine picking up my 1911 without the the safety disengaging. the grip safety actually feels lighter than the single action trigger pull.

 

Went shooting for the first time with the glock today. Loved it. Of course I don't have much to compare it to. Once I got the feel of the sights I was hitting some pretty tight patterns. Good way to spend the afternoon....

 

Damn, you're right, ammo is expensive. Went to a local range to shot. $15 for the hour, $2 since we used our own ammo, $2 for the target(which I thought was bull shit) plus the $28 for the 100 rounds I brought in. $47 for maybe 50 min of shooting..... Yikes

I got some Winchester .40 S&W 100 round box> 165 grain< for $29.99 yesterday. Today I picked up some Federal .40 S&W 180 grain for $26/ 100.

 

I buy all my targets in bulk online. The ones that they typically charge you $1-$2 for at the gun range you can usually buy for around 30 cents if you order in bulk online.

I have never heard of a range that charges you a fee to shoot your own ammo. I hope you have other options when it comes to a range.

 

I won't go back to the "$2 to use your on ammo range" . There are several other options....

 

Most of the high-volume pistol shooters that I know will buy a couple of IDPA cardboard silhouettes or scrounge a bit of cardboard for backing and staple 3x5 index cards to them for targets. Rifle guys usually just print out their targets from .pdf's available online. http://www.reloadbench.com/pdf.html

 

Here is a good link for making your own targets if you plan on doing any real volume of shooting

 

One thing I wanted to share is the benefit of using photorealistic targets of bad guys. When I first started shooting I just bought the black and white silhouette targets, after all they were in the rough shape of a body with center mass and head zones and of course they were inexpensive.

Then I took a defensive pistol class and about halfway through the course we switched from silhouette and circle targets to photorealistic targets. The instructor explained how in training we condition ourselves to shooting at these neutral black and white looking targets, and we don't become psychologically prepared to shoot/kill someone.

We had an incident here in 2005 at the Tacoma mall where a guy high on meth had a norinco AK clone and started shooting people in a mall. A CCW permit holder working in the knife shop ran towards the shooting. He pulled his pistol out on the bad guy and told him to put the rifle down instead of just shooting the bad guy. The bad guy didn't put his rifle down and shot the good guy 4 times. The good guy survived but is paralyzed to this day. Afterwards during media interviews they asked CCW holder why he didn't just shoot the bad guy, and he said he just couldn't psychologically pull the trigger.

Not ALL of my targets are the photorealistic variety (the darn things cost .50 cents each!) but I would say about 30% of the targets I shoot when I go to the range are the photo type. Also the last round of shooting I do before I leave is always on photo targets because I want to leave in the mind frame I might have to shoot someone.

*Additionally I want to add I have never seen anyone else at the range using photorealistic targets. While there is no rule at my range that you cannot use photo targets, I think there might be an unspoken taboo regarding shooting targets with pictures of actual humans on them. Either that or people are just cheap like I used to be

 

Sadly, most of the target ranges in my area do not allow the use of photorealistic targets because they consider it politically incorrect. Guns aren't for killing people, y'know. The closest you get are those lame cartoon zombie torsos. Back when I lived further in the Deep South they had a ton of "shoot the armed racial minority!" targets, they seemed to be popular. I actually have a "haw haw" picture of all the gangsta dude ones being sold out.

It's true that some people have to condition themselves to shoot at another human being. It's also true that many people become fixated on the silohuette and forget that living, breathing hoodlums aren't made out of cardboard and don't present their A zone. I think there are three groups of people involved in CCW shootings: people who freeze up because they realize they're about to unload on a person, people who get angry/scared toward the perp/channel that into action and people who don't even think about it until after they're in cuffs while the cops sort out the whole mess. Really, given the inherently 0-60 reaction that any typical CCW situation is, you don't get prep time where you can psych yourself up, stretch those tight hamstrings and think about the fundamentals of shooting. It's probably a lot like when they wake you up with trash cans in basic training.

Took a Simunitions-based home defense class last summer. Two floor farm home setup with two or three "friendlies" hiding and one armed bad guy lurking about in a random location. You don't get but half a second to pop the bad guy while you try to move out of the line of fire. Despite the fact that you know the bad guy is just an instructor and that you know you're holding a dummy Glock 17 that shoots expensive paintballs, your body does that pussy thing where it wants to avoid any type of pain, especially pain of an unknown quantity (getting shot in the neck hurts, apparently). If you get a chance to train with Simunitions, I highly recommend it. It'll show you how little aiming happens at hallway distances and how hard it is to land critical hits on a moving target. I learned that it is difficult to focus on the front sight when you're trying to evaluate the friend/foe status of a person, follow the bad guy's movements and that it is easy to focus on the bad guy's weapon instead of his high center mass when throwing rounds at spitball distances. I did better than most of the other students in attendance (didn't get shot) but I still sucked when it came to getting good hits.