Pete123

I think this is the least expensive I have ever seen new ones:   http://www.cdnnsports.com/email-specials-html/s-w-m-p9-9mm.html#.Vn85zJMrKRs

Bump - more verbiage and pics ..... and the grand prize.... the bayonet has a really cool stamp as well.

Both of these women are very attractive and very badass.     What's with the focus on hands?  Roza was college educated and was a school teacher.  I like her hands.  

Congratulations.  I have a Sig 226 SAO that is one of my very favorite guns.  Also, there is more than marketing hype to the Legion.   Upgraded from a basic 226 are the SRT trigger, another new thing on the trigger, High quality ($100) grips, night sights plus other enhancements to the frame.

Thanks btq, especially for the resources.  Also, I think we were both right re: Vietnam.  Cutting the Ho Chi Min trail would have yielded military victory, though nothing could have lasted with the south Vietnamese government that was corrupt.   Also, the very experienced German soldiers from the Eastern front were good.  Our guys got some experience in Africa, though I'll bet that was first conflict for a lot of our guys and the Nazi's had been training for years before WW2 and then had lots of experience from the Eastern Front.

Never thought I would be saying this, but I would definitely go with a Glock over the Sig either for my personal defense or if I were a Seal.  I suspect the Seals get what they want.  Everything I have ever read indicates that budget isn't an issue for them.

BTQ, that makes sense.  Lack of supplies while opposing eastern front vets who where more experienced would create quite a problem.

None of the vendors consistently best for everything.   AmmunitionDepot is in Fl, so shipping isn't too bad and they have excellent customer svce and quality offerings.   LuckyGunner is awesome, though they are in Knoxville, so you have to pay tax.  Someone else gave a thumbs up to Ammoman.  I've had good luck with them, though last time I checked they were partnered with LuckyGunner and you had to pay tax.   There are some names in this thread I haven't tried - will have to do so.

A true tale of badassery. Roza Shanina was a Russian sniper in WW2. Here are a few highlights from her story. Age 14 - Dis-obeys her parents and walks 100 miles across a Russian tundra to go to college. Volunteers for the military. Women had many obstacles to getting a combat role. She overcame them all. Dis-obeyed orders more than once to be able to fight. Was known for being fast enough with her Mosin that she commonly took out two enemy at the time. Died at the age of 20 shielding a wounded comrade. When a college-educated kindergarten teacher walked into a Soviet Union military center during the fire and rage of World War II, it did not seem as strange then as it may sound now. It was late 1941, a year that ended with the death of her first brother during the siege of Leningrad. She was initially turned away by the local military commissariat who knew how hot it was at the front, but after losing two more siblings, in 1942 Roza Shanina finally succeeded in joining the 2,484 Soviet women serving their motherland as snipers. “The key thing about the Soviet snipers was their impact on Soviet morale,” said David H. Lippman, author of World War II Plus 75: The Road to War. “They provided the ‘workers’ state’ with ‘workers’ heroes.’” But after Shanina made it through the Central Female Sniper Academy, military deployment plans nearly kept her away from the raging battle entirely — despite a widely held Soviet military belief that women soldiers made good snipers because of their greater physical flexibility and, true or not, their cunning, patience and ability to endure combat hardships better than their male counterparts. Not one to be deferred or diverted after her initial attempts, Shanina began what would be a very short but significant march to greatness. It may feel strange to measure greatness by numbers of other humans killed, but the Soviets faced a fairly existential dilemma: Win or perish. It was April 1944, near Vitebsk, where Shanina killed her first Nazi soldier. Within a month, she had taken out about 17 more. Shanina ignored orders and continued to support advancing infantry columns. Under heavy artillery fire, her commanders decided to withdraw, but Shanina ignored orders and continued to support advancing infantry columns — and not just as a sniper. She captured German soldiers and was wounded herself. Her exploits earned her military commendations and wide renown among her countrymen, as well as in the West. She returned to battle soon thereafter, fighting in a battalion that lost 72 out of its 78 soldiers. A battle she survived. Though not for long. Shanina was finally felled in January 1945, her chest torn open by an exploded artillery fragment. But before her death at the age of 20, she had managed 54 — some sources say 59 — confirmed kills in less than a year’s time. By April the war was over: Nazi Germany was defeated and in flames, and Shanina had secured a legacy for the ages. And when you consider other significantly grim records of sniper success — 109 confirmed kills by U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Adelbert Waldron over two years in Vietnam and the estimated 255 kills by Navy SEAL Chris Kyle (of American Sniper fame) during his 10 years of service — Shanina stands out for dispatching the most in the least amount of time. The Soviet Union was still fighting when she died, and all told, over the course of the conflict, Soviet women snipers were collectively responsible for 11,280 kills, by conservative estimates. But if history notes anything in Shanina’s case, it is not so much her kill number but the fact that she eagerly pursued a difficult, dirty and dangerous job for a cause: the continued existence of her homeland. M.G. Sheftall, technical adviser on the History Channel series Dogfights and author ofBlossoms in the Wind: Human Legacies of the Kamikaze, points out that Shanina’s desire to fight was so fervent that she made the bold decision to go over her superior officers’ heads and write to Stalin personally to ask that she be deployed to the front lines. Says Sheftall, “It shows a level of stones and guts that makes the lack of a major motion picture about her damned near confounding.”

Yes, 2-18 is February of 1918 - corroborated with the serial number.

  I'm glad you made this comment.  What kind of finish is this?  It almost seems like bare metal.  

Check out this stamp from my 1903 Springfield. It's really cool in terms of today. I'm impressed that they came up with this almost 100 years ago. 98 years old and still looking good. Here are picks of the whole gun. Note that the bayonet has a bomb stamp. It's a little different that the one on the gun but still cool. Many of you know that I've never seen a stock that didn't need a good re-finishing. I've committed to my self and generations that follow that I won't re-finish history. Having said that, I don't think this is the original finish as I don't see a 98 year old patina. What are your thoughts? If this isn't the original finish then I think I can make her look even better! I do think that I have the original sling, though it needs some treatment before putting it back on the gun. Also, the bore is sparkling.

I have that same one and I love it.  What a great gift!  Springfield really does a good job with their 1911s

Nice!  Gotta love that sense of humor

I would encourage you to get one if you want one.     My thinking is that you would have a hard time getting your money out of it if you need to sell it, so make sure you want one.  Keep these things in mind:   There are a lot of P226 and P229 police trade ins, and ones in good shape are between $400 - $500.  I've watched a lot of folks on TGO post ones that they bought new that they haven't been able to sell.   Also, Sig allows some nice guns to be sold at very aggressive prices at times.  I bought a promotion P226 Extreme for $750.  It came in a cardboard box rather than a plastic case, but the gun is the same.  The P226 Extreme is upgraded from the regular P226 with Tritium sights, Hogue grips and the SRT trigger.   If you go to resell the gun you'll be competing with these other offerings.

  I firmly believe that we could have achieved victory in Vietnam in short order if the Whitehouse had permitted our military to sever the Ho Chi Min trail.  North Vietnamese General Giap of North Vietnam, their top military guy, agreed with this.   Also, relative to Stalingrad, the Russians won that battle because they outperformed the Germans.  The Germans were really good with Blitzkrieg and mechanized fighting.  At great cost of lives, the Russians both destroyed and tied up Germany's mechanized troops in Kotluban.     No one disputes that Stalin could care less how many Russians died, though throwing people at the problem isn't how they won.   Then the Germans shot themselves in the foot by bombing Stalingrad and turning it into rubble - perfect for the Russians to defend.     The Russians took the lead with snipers.  They would go in the sewers, come out behind the Germans and then kill them.  They would lure German tanks down narrow streets where the tank couldn't turn around and then use Molotov cocktails to catch it on fire.   The Russians by an large, were tougher than the Germans in close quarters combat and there was a lot of that in Stalingrad.  I'm talking about using bayonets, rifle butts and spades.  The field spade was a personal favorite of many Russians to kill Germans with.   It was common for there to be alternating floors in a building held by one side or the other.  The Russians were very good at setting booby traps.      Another brilliant move from Zhucov was recognizing that the Germans had a distinct advantage with artillery.  Therefore, he encouraged troops to have no more than several meters between them and the Germans, thus preventing the Germans from using artillery effectively.     I'm not saying that the Russians are the best urban fighters ever, though they kicked ass in Stalingrad.     The Germans could not have won WW2 without getting the atomic bomb first. Here's why.  Many think of the Nazi military as some kind of super warriors due to their early success in WWII.     After WWI, all the other countries in Europe were tired of war and didn't put much effort into their militaries.  Hitler put a lot into the military, so they started with war with better equipment and better trained troops.  However, they were a country of 70 million.  So, yes, the Russians lost a lot more people, though the German's couldn't afford to lose so many.  As the best German soldiers were killed they couldn't be replaced.   A big question in my mind is why the allies had so much trouble on the western front.  A lot of the German soldiers by that time were 15 year old kids.  I mainly study the eastern front, so I don't know what caused that yet.

An AK may be next on my list, so I look forward to what folks have to say.

  I resemble that remark!

      The posts I was referring to had more of a "here's a little gun for the little lady" type attitude.  

So, my Christmas present to my self was a Finnish Sako hand select M39 from Classic Firearms most recent batch. I love this gun. My Mosin 31/90 has loose tolerances and the trigger feels like you have to pull it a foot before the weapon discharges. Not this M39. It is tight, smooth and has a good trigger. It was well preserved with a very bright bore. I was fortunate. The cosmoline had been removed from everything except the bolt. I've taken the gun completely apart, including the bolt and there were no ugly surprises. It's a pleasure to shoot. Sweet trigger. I'm still learning how to shoot a rifle and have struggled with accuracy. So, while the 2.5 inch groups at 50 yards aren't great, they show a big improvement for me.

Your feelings are valid.  As well, I don't view the comments about restrictions on gun purchases due to wives as having negative intent.   I view them more as good natured joking.  If I were a woman I might not see them as funny.  I don't expect the 'money related to gun purchases related to the wife' jokes to go away, though it would be nice for men on this forum to be aware of how women perceive things.     I would like to see more women on the forum as well.     I've seen a few posts here or there that were a slam against the physical strength of women and men who don't enjoy shooting high recoil guns.  These comments are the equivalent of the gorilla pounding his chest that he is the toughest gorilla of all and are more about how the man sees himself than others.   Anyone who doubts a woman's ability to be badass clearly isn't aware of what Russian women soldiers achieved on the eastern front in WWII.   I enjoy your posts as well as Dolomite's Weezy's posts.  

Nice choice.  For defense, I settled on the M&P line.  If I were going through the eval again, I would take a hard look at both the Sig 320 and the FN guns.  I suspect one of them may well have been the winner.

I was just watching a documentary on the Battle for Stalingrad.   One of the historians that was interviewed made a comment that caught my attention.  He said that General Zhukav developed the best street fighting tactics and skills ever - that no one has ever defended a city as well as he did.   That strikes me as odd.  We have an awesome military that studies historical battles all the time.  Could Zhukov really have been better than modern, well trained armies of today?        

Sako M39 for me.  I'll post in 'Show and Tell' soon.

Thanks for sharing.  Hopefully, the soldier survived and wasn't completely mangled up.