Gun advice for a newbie

[marlabuck]

Do ya' feel lucky... punk?

Sorry...I laughed so hard I started choking...Marla ccasion14:

 

[YY1]

Our local Shoot Straight has a Taurus 38 ultralight for $300 on the discount table.

I'm giving it serious thought, but I sure would like a bit longer barrel.

They have a 380 ACP for $225, but the shell has a much smaller charge.

I think I'm more of a revolver guy, as I think I am more aware of the timing of the kick.
My brother had a 40 ACP, and I always felt like the discharge was going to be a surprise.

I only have a full manual Ruger single six 22 right now but I can put all six in a 5 inch circle with at least one right in the middle (interestingly, it's usually the first one) at 15 yards.

Yes I would kill the neighbors kid breaking into my home for drug money.
If I feel my life or my family is in danger.

 

[pabster]

My neighbors kids are a bunch of spoiled brats. They tend to start screaming and yelling around 7am on Sundays. :rev_in_action:

 

[Cranky]

My neighbors kids are a bunch of spoiled brats. They tend to start screaming and yelling around 7am on Sundays. :rev_in_action:

Can't shoot em for that but I understand the feeling lol. My neighbor has 3 dogs and when they first moved in, they barked ALL the damn time. I stopped that crap but it took em over a year for it to sink in. Not going to put up with that crap. Besides, it's against city ordinance to have more than two. Now they have 4 but only let 2 at a time out. One dog sounds pretty mean and is a good 100 lbs. That's another reason why I'm usually armed lol. I've had more than a few encounters with moron dog owners and their dogs. One night I got close to serious injury or worse when a large german shepard ran out in front of my bike. Man, everything went slow motion for what seemed like forever when I nailed him dead center doing 45 or better. Killed the dog and surprisingly I didn't crash but I did everything else! The ordeal made me sore the next day....

 

[watermelon]

Every Californian should be a member of:

http://www.calguns.net/

Check out the private sales section for good prices on used guns.

Probably a good idea to get one before April 1, 2012 because thats when Senate Bill 69 kicks in and outlaws gun sales in the state.


watermelon

 

[pabster]

Every Californian should be a member of:

http://www.calguns.net/

Check out the private sales section for good prices on used guns.

Probably a good idea to get one before April 1, 2012 because thats when Senate Bill 69 kicks in and outlaws gun sales in the state.


watermelon

Just joined Calguns, watermelon. Thanks for the link, looks like a great forum!

 

[Bruzilla]

A few thoughts.
First,If you are going to arm yourself against burglars, home invaders,or other possible intrusions, get some good gun training. You might be a decent shot but there is always something to learn about handling these situations.
Second, spend a little money reenforcing your home against illegal entry. Most people are amazed how easy it is to kick most front doors open. Door and window bars are cheap and will deter many criminals. They won't stop a determined pro but the extra few seconds it takes to get by any deterrent can make all the difference in the effectiveness of your response.
Lastly, think about what will happen if you actually kill an intruder. I'm not saying that you shouldn't defend yourself. I think you have every right to and you should do whatever is necessary to defend yourself and your family. But are you willing to shoot and kill the unarmed neighbor kid when he breaks into your house looking for dope money. Thing happen very quickly when you are awakened in the middle of the night and the adrenaline is running. Easy to make a mistake that you can't fix.
By the way, nothing like a 12 Ga. pump for home defense. Big, loud and empties a room in a hurry. Much safer than a pistol. Much harder to shoot yourself. Just my humble opinions.

Excellent point about considering the consequences of using lethal force, and a critical element of proper defensive training. You can be 100% legal and morally correct in using lethal force, and still end up ruining your life over it. On the plus side, while you always hear the stories of shootings involving over-reactions or misidentification of a threat, you rarely hear about the thousands of stories of genuine scumbags being taken down. The number of solid, legitimate, defensive shootings out number the questionable, regrettable, ones by probably 500 to one.

As to your shotgun pick, once again, this is one of those conventional wisdom things that lots of folks who've never been in the poop think is the right thing, and it's just not. Long arms, be they shotguns, rifles, or carbines, are only desireable if your intension is to barricade yourself in a room, call the cops, and wait for the calvary to show up. They are perfect for that. But if there's a chance you'll leave the room, or need to go to another room to secure family members, they're the worst weapon in the world to have.

There's nothing that makes my longarm-equipped students realize the stupidity of their decision than when we do a walkthrough, and they slowly enter a room or turn a corner where I'm at with their shotgun or carbine, and I grab the muzzle of their trusted weapon, push down hard, then push up and back and they realize they have no control or use of the weapon and they have a buttstock headed right for their face and there's not a damn thing they can do about it. The light bulb always seems to come on at that point, and they realize they need a good weak-handed-operable handgun because I can grab their strong hand/arm as they come through the door, or rush against them while they push me back with their strong hand, but as long as they have their handgun in the weak hand, they have an excellent chance of taking me down.

 

[Budnicks]

Bruzilla; There is also techniques for disarming a person with a hand gun, especially with only one hand on the gun & out in front of you, revolver & semi-auto {maybe you could share those here also}, along with the techniques for a person using a long gun, your probably going a little too extreme for most people... I get it your a self defense expert, & thank you for all great tips, suggestions, posting all of them, taking the time & sharing your expertise, but not everyone is going to look at home defense like being "a cop storming a building" or "being in a war type situation" or acting like Magnum PI with gun out & sighted at every move {we all know that TV move}, that's the worst case scenarios & most people are going to forget most of any training they have in a crisis situation anyway... K.I.S.S. Keep It Simple Stupid is a great saying that applies here, that way you don't have to remember a ton of different things in a time of crisis... A determined assailant, robber or rapper etc., will do most anything, even after being shot, especially if they are a third striker that chances life in prison, if you haven't had some serious self defense training & are extremely fluent at it & unless you get them, before they get near you, your pretty much screwed anyway... Oh & believe me in a dark quite house at night, you can clearly hear a pump shotgun or a slide of a semi-auto being cycled from many rooms away, try it sometime, late at night when it quite, have some one go on the other side of your house or upstairs & cycle either weapon, you will see or should I say hear what I am saying... I'm not saying that it's a good defense at all, but if I was sneaking around someplace & I heard that distinct sound of metal to metal slamming home, I would definitely think twice about going any farther or getting the hell out of there "now".... Hell sometimes just a baseball bat is enough to detour some one... I'm not trying to start an argument at all, just stating my opinion... Good luck with your choices of home protection Pabster, maybe even a good home security system, with battery back up for if power is out or someone cuts off the power, an alarm, bells or horn & stickers posted ever were, might also be a good idea...

 

[Cranky]

Every Californian should be a member of:

http://www.calguns.net/

Check out the private sales section for good prices on used guns.

Probably a good idea to get one before April 1, 2012 because thats when Senate Bill 69 kicks in and outlaws gun sales in the state.


watermelon

Are you sure about that? I know that open carry was banned. You could open carry so long as it was unloaded but what good is that?
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/oct/10/local/la-me-brown-guns-20111011

 

[tpodwdog]

A few thoughts.
First,If you are going to arm yourself against burglars, home invaders,or other possible intrusions, get some good gun training. You might be a decent shot but there is always something to learn about handling these situations.
Second, spend a little money reenforcing your home against illegal entry. Most people are amazed how easy it is to kick most front doors open. Door and window bars are cheap and will deter many criminals. They won't stop a determined pro but the extra few seconds it takes to get by any deterrent can make all the difference in the effectiveness of your response.
Lastly, think about what will happen if you actually kill an intruder. I'm not saying that you shouldn't defend yourself. I think you have every right to and you should do whatever is necessary to defend yourself and your family. But are you willing to shoot and kill the unarmed neighbor kid when he breaks into your house looking for dope money. Thing happen very quickly when you are awakened in the middle of the night and the adrenaline is running. Easy to make a mistake that you can't fix.
By the way, nothing like a 12 Ga. pump for home defense. Big, loud and empties a room in a hurry. Much safer than a pistol. Much harder to shoot yourself. Just my humble opinions.

....if someone breaks into my house....i dont give a damn if it IS the neighbor kid lookin for dope money...he will get shot...end of story!
i have had to pull my gun on several occasions....luckily the mere sight of it scared the **** out of them and i didnt have to pull the trigger....BUT... if you find yourself in that situation never shoot to mame....SHOOT TO KILL...they will teach you this in gun school 101( yes i took that class)

last week i had an "incident" concerning my old tenant that i had to evict. the moron is a meeky mealy mouthed idiot that decided that he was going to get drunk and show up at my house...(he owes me back rent...yes i took him to court). so with his " booze muscles" on...he decided to start giving me a ration of ****...and he had another moron with him just as drunk. being unprepared ..( i never thot he would ever come here).. i was defenseless with my .40 completely out of reach.i slammed the door in his face after using a few choice words.... put a clip of hollow points in the gun, and called the state police. the day before yesterday....i hear another knock on my door....this time i was ready. i answered the door with mr Smith and Wesson in my hand...the person at the door was a parole officer looking for the idiot tenant that i had evicted. the parole officer seen the gun and his eyes got really big and i heard him utter the words ..."OHHHHHHHHHHH SHHHHHHHHITTTTTTTTTTTTTT"......He put his hands in the air and stood there in shock. after i found out who this guy was and what he wanted...i let him in..told him the story of the drug dealing tenant i had living here. they are going to lock him up.....anyway, its strange how you were asking about guns as all of this was happening.

 

[Budnicks]

Federal fire Arms Lic.

Every Californian should be a member of:

http://www.calguns.net/

Check out the private sales section for good prices on used guns.

Probably a good idea to get one before April 1, 2012 because thats when Senate Bill 69 kicks in and outlaws gun sales in the state.


watermelon

My understanding of the B.S. Calif. Senate libtard's law signed by ubber libtard Gov. Jerry Brown, is Senate Bill 69 along with other 2nd amendment restrictions we will have now, no more open carrying of firearms empty, now it's a misdemeanor, It doesn't ban the sale of guns in Calif., it make the people selling guns register & keep records of Long Gun & riffle sales also, private parties & Federal Fire Arms Licensed distributors & retailers, guns to be registered with the local police or sheriffs dept.'s, instead of just hand gun sales, like it has been for over the past 100+ years, but I kind of not surprised it doesn't ban them, knowing the flock of freaken liberals idiots running our once fine great state...

 

[Moparsmitty]

....if someone breaks into my house....i dont give a damn if it IS the neighbor kid lookin for dope money...he will get shot...end of story!
i have had to pull my gun on several occasions....luckily the mere sight of it scared the **** out of them and i didnt have to pull the trigger....BUT... if you find yourself in that situation never shoot to mame....SHOOT TO KILL...they will teach you this in gun school 101( yes i took that class)

last week i had an "incident" concerning my old tenant that i had to evict. the moron is a meeky mealy mouthed idiot that decided that he was going to get drunk and show up at my house...(he owes me back rent...yes i took him to court). so with his " booze muscles" on...he decided to start giving me a ration of ****...and he had another moron with him just as drunk. being unprepared ..( i never thot he would ever come here).. i was defenseless with my .40 completely out of reach.i slammed the door in his face after using a few choice words.... put a clip of hollow points in the gun, and called the state police. the day before yesterday....i hear another knock on my door....this time i was ready. i answered the door with mr Smith and Wesson in my hand...the person at the door was a parole officer looking for the idiot tenant that i had evicted. the parole officer seen the gun and his eyes got really big and i heard him utter the words ..."OHHHHHHHHHHH SHHHHHHHHITTTTTTTTTTTTTT"......He put his hands in the air and stood there in shock. after i found out who this guy was and what he wanted...i let him in..told him the story of the drug dealing tenant i had living here. they are going to lock him up.....anyway, its strange how you were asking about guns as all of this was happening.

You are correct. Gun 101 says don't aim a gun at anything that you aren't willing to shoot and kill. And I'm not saying that you shouldn't defend yourself. All I'm saying is that you can be involved in the most legal and justified shooting in the world, but if killing another person doesn't stay with with you and bother you, then you are the exception. Like I say JMHO.

 

[Bruzilla]

Bruzilla; There is also techniques for disarming a person with a hand gun, especially with only one hand on the gun & out in front of you, revolver & semi-auto {maybe you could share those here also}, along with the techniques for a person using a long gun, your probably going a little too extreme for most people... I get it your a self defense expert, & thank you for all great tips, suggestions, posting all of them, taking the time & sharing your expertise, but not everyone is going to look at home defense like being "a cop storming a building" or "being in a war type situation" or acting like Magnum PI with gun out & sighted at every move {we all know that TV move}, that's the worst case scenarios & most people are going to forget most of any training they have in a crisis situation anyway... K.I.S.S. Keep It Simple Stupid is a great saying that applies here, that way you don't have to remember a ton of different things in a time of crisis... A determined assailant, robber or rapper etc., will do most anything, even after being shot, especially if they are a third striker that chances life in prison, if you haven't had some serious self defense training & are extremely fluent at it & unless you get them, before they get near you, your pretty much screwed anyway... Oh & believe me in a dark quite house at night, you can clearly hear a pump shotgun or a slide of a semi-auto being cycled from many rooms away, try it sometime, late at night when it quite, have some one go on the other side of your house or upstairs & cycle either weapon, you will see or should I say hear what I am saying... I'm not saying that it's a good defense at all, but if I was sneaking around someplace & I heard that distinct sound of metal to metal slamming home, I would definitely think twice about going any farther or getting the hell out of there "now".... Hell sometimes just a baseball bat is enough to detour some one... I'm not trying to start an argument at all, just stating my opinion... Good luck with your choices of home protection Pabster, maybe even a good home security system, with battery back up for if power is out or someone cuts off the power, an alarm, bells or horn & stickers posted ever were, might also be a good idea...

Most of my students have learned to use a handgun from watching TV and movies. They walk around with their gun in their strong hand, with their weak hand supporting it; and either holding the gun up by their face or down pointing at the ground, i.e., the preferred carry posture you see in every cop show or action movie around. The problem with that, as you correctly point out, is it is pretty damn easy to either disarm them or make it impossible to bring the weapon into a firing position when you carry your weapon that way.

The method that I've found works the best, and that I've trained students from scared women to trained police officers, is to keep your handgun in your weak hand, down by your side, and walk with your strong hand open and arm extended just in front of you as a lead. Your biggest threat when moving from room to room in a building is a blitz attack from a concealed opponent. Human nature in these cases is normally for an opponent to grab at your arm/hand with both their hands because that's the first threat they see as you enter their space. Even if they see the gun in your other hand, they won't reach for it with both hands because of your other hand being free to fend them off. In either case, your strong arm and hand are free to buy you some space and fend off the initial attack much easier than you could do with your weak hand. If you have both hands on your gun, you guarantee the opponent will be able to grab both your hands if they blitz you, and with the gun pointed up by your face, or down in front of you, when they grab your hands, the gun is pretty much useless.

The other advantage to this method is it allows you to use your body as an additional block to your opponent. I'm right handed, and carry left handed, so no matter what direction an opponent lunges at me from, I can rotate my body to engage him (hopefully him) with my open right hand, and place my left hand (with the gun) on the other side of my body, which makes it about impossible for him to interfere with my left arm. I can grab or shove with my right hand to get room, then when I have the space I can bring the weapon into position and fire with the lowest possible risk of interference. Best of all, this all happens pretty much by instinct so you don't need a lot of practice and you can let your defensive instincts work with you instead of against you.

I would suggest all you guys practice this with some friends. Tell them to grab you and try to disarm you in some area of your house. Try carrying however you like, then try the approach I just outlined, and see what works.

 

[Bruzilla]

....if someone breaks into my house....i dont give a damn if it IS the neighbor kid lookin for dope money...he will get shot...end of story!
i have had to pull my gun on several occasions....luckily the mere sight of it scared the **** out of them and i didnt have to pull the trigger....BUT... if you find yourself in that situation never shoot to mame....SHOOT TO KILL...they will teach you this in gun school 101( yes i took that class)

last week i had an "incident" concerning my old tenant that i had to evict. the moron is a meeky mealy mouthed idiot that decided that he was going to get drunk and show up at my house...(he owes me back rent...yes i took him to court). so with his " booze muscles" on...he decided to start giving me a ration of ****...and he had another moron with him just as drunk. being unprepared ..( i never thot he would ever come here).. i was defenseless with my .40 completely out of reach.i slammed the door in his face after using a few choice words.... put a clip of hollow points in the gun, and called the state police. the day before yesterday....i hear another knock on my door....this time i was ready. i answered the door with mr Smith and Wesson in my hand...the person at the door was a parole officer looking for the idiot tenant that i had evicted. the parole officer seen the gun and his eyes got really big and i heard him utter the words ..."OHHHHHHHHHHH SHHHHHHHHITTTTTTTTTTTTTT"......He put his hands in the air and stood there in shock. after i found out who this guy was and what he wanted...i let him in..told him the story of the drug dealing tenant i had living here. they are going to lock him up.....anyway, its strange how you were asking about guns as all of this was happening.

Nooooooooooooooooooooo!!! You put a magazine full of hollow points into your gun, not a clip!

 

[Ron 73]

You guys are great. I really appreciate the advice, and also the stories that back it up. Feel free to tell the tales, it helps to give me a complete picture of what I'm about to tackle.

Based on what I'm hearing, it's going to come down to a 9mm pistol or a .38 revolver, depending on what feels right. As much as the shotgun has been mentioned, I'm not at the point of taking that step. Luckily, I live in an area with very low violent crime, and the one time I called 911 because we thought our baby was choking, we had a sheriff, 2 paramedics and 4 firemen in our house in under 5 minutes.

Figure I'll start with a pistol and move on from there. Knowing me, I'll get so into shooting that Ill have an arsenal before too long!

If you do get into this, I highly recommend this revolver here, i put it on a magazine to show you the size, Its a 8 shot Iver Johnson and takes long rifle 22 shells, excellent and cheap way to have target practice and fun.. Whatever revolver you buy for protection though, its important to get well educated with it, this is a nice 22 to have fun with though.. if its a bit blurry i was in a hurry, before i had to explain it to someone at door lol.. (no pun intended).. These are still around, not to expensive and if you buy a brick of long rifle 22 shells, they last a long time..

 

[PoppaSmurf]

In a short...heres what I have got throughout the house, upstairs bedroom, 1 Beretta 92FS 9mil ( theres a reason the U.S. military went with these replaced the 1911 45cal), the den, a Bersa380 CC, and the living room a Springfield XD40 cal..have a varied selection of ammo from target rounds to Hollow points...recommendation...if your going to buy a weapon....buy a good one !!!!!!, take lessons, on care, SAFETY, and shooting.... OHHHH and get ya a good dawg...one that barks !!!!!!

 

[iraqivet01]

If it's for home safety. Get a revolver. The magazine spring will compress and not feed if kept loaded for weeks or months at a time.

 

[Bruzilla]

The Beretta 92FS is an excellent pistol, especially for newer shooters since it has an easy to use, single, safety. The down side is if you have smaller hands, it's a pretty big gun. I carry a Sig P226, which doesn't have a safety, but I've been shooting it for over 10 years and have a feel for it. I carried the 92FS for a while, but the smaller Sig just works better for me even though it is a bit small for my hands.

I ended up swapping my 92FS for a 96FS. Ammo is more expensive, but at least it's not another 9MM.

 

[67 coronet]

only thing i have to say is
1)take a gun safety course.most good gun shops will provide them.
2)choose a gun you feel good with in your hand.gun brand and size opinions are the same as cars,everyone has a different type.go to a range and shoot them!no one can tell you what feels right.
3)if you have kids,teach them about the gun you choose.if they are old enough,send them to the safty course as well.they need to respect that gun and what it is capable of.
4)only thing i have not seen mentioned in the thread(lots of great opinions by the way)is the choice of firearms ability to go through walls.keep it small for home defence.make sure a wall will stop the round you are shooting.last thing you ever need to do is shoot a familly member accidently while trying to shoot a robber.
5)get comfortable with your new gun.shoot it at least once every couple of months or so.put a full box of ammo through it each time you take it to the range.(clean it afterward)that way if and when you need it,you know how to use it and use it well.

 

[Bruzilla]

If it's for home safety. Get a revolver. The magazine spring will compress and not feed if kept loaded for weeks or months at a time.

That was a problem with older production magazines, but new spring design and fabrication have fixed that problem.

I did a test with three P-226 magazines. I loaded them with 15 rounds each, back in 2008. I fired one magazine in 2009 for a one year test, and a second last year for a three year test. I'm saving the last one for a five year test firing in July 2013. Both the mags I've tested so far, after being loaded for one and three years respectively, emptied with no feed issues.

Now... watch that five year mag completely make a liar out of me.