JAB

The phillips screws don't bother me. In fact, I like the idea of being able to take the screws out without having to have anything but a Swiss Army knife. I honestly don't see the point in having to have square-head drivers, hex-head drivers, etc. on an inexpensive carry, home defense or range gun when a good old, common phillips or even slotted screw can hold things together just as well.

My grandfather in law talks about eating carp when he was a kid. Said that the ones they got came from real clear creeks, streams, etc. and were pretty good. There was a creek that ran across his parents' farm and he said the creek would sometimes overflow. When the creek would recede, there would be large (sounds like they were pretty much pond-sized) pockets of water left for a while and he said there would be carp trapped in those pools. He said that he and his dad would take their little raft/boat out on those pools looking for carp. He told me that his dad was strong enough that he would just stab the carp with a pitchfork and flop them up onto the boat but that, being a kid, he usually had to shoot (mostly stun) them with his shotgun then just drag them onto the boat.

Where are you folks getting the idea that a person has to be in your house for the assumption that you were in fear for your life to apply? (Excerpted from Tennessee Code Annotated as found at Michie's Legal Resources) Now, I am not a lawyer and this certainly is not legal advice. That said, a person using deadly force is 'assumed' to have had a reasonable fear of death or serious, bodily injury when such force is used against another person who unlawfully and forcibly enters a residence (which is defined as a dwelling in which a person resides) or dwelling (of which the definition given here includes any attached porch.) Therefore, it seems to me that someone doesn't actually have to be in your house. Instead, I am reading the law to say that someone simply being on your porch and attempting to unlawfully enter your house meets the requirements for the assumption that you have a reasonable fear of death or serious, bodily injury. Of course, what the law says and what a DA does can be two, different things.

Looks pretty good. You know, people talk about HiPoints being ugly and I guess I would have to go along with that to a certain degree. I also believe that they are good guns - especially considering the price - and to a person who had just successfully used a HiPoint to defend their life and the lives of their loved ones, it just might appear to be the most beautiful pistol in the world.

Back when the commercials listing all the side effects were a relatively new thing, I used to find it amusing to wait until they finish the list then add, in the most announcer-like voice I could manage, "...and spontaneous human combustion." Got a few chuckles out of it but eventually even that got old. I also have to add the Carfax 'Car Fox' commercials to the list. Lame, local commercials that come across like lame, local commercials are bad, enough but national commercials that come across like lame, local commercials are even worse. Speaking of lame, local commercials, how about 'Old Ben Franklin Motors' and that stupid ass 'We own the bank," slogan? Maybe I am a little bias, though, because I don't like the way they do business (or used to, anyhow.) A few years back, I changed jobs and cashed out my retirement account at the old job. I needed to trade vehicles and decided to use the retirement money to pay cash for a newer, used one. I stopped at Old Ben Franklin to look at one, particular vehicle on their lot. When I asked the salesman the price, he said, "Well, let's go inside and look at your finances and see what we can do." I said, "You don't understand. I am shopping around, intend to pay cash and just want to know the price." The response, again, was, "Well, come on inside and we'll sit down and take a look at your finances." About that time, I got pissed and said, "My finances don't make a damn bit of difference. I told you that I intend to pay cash and I simply wanted to know the price of this car. If the price is going to change based on how much you think you can get out of me then just forget I asked because I don't want to deal with someone that crooked, anyhow."

Personally, I find it to be the height of stupidity that a student can be punished in any manner, whatsoever, for having a facsimile weapon in their vehicle, drawing pictures of 'weapons' or even (in at least one case I read about) having a tiny 'gun' that is an accessory for an action figure (G.I. Joe or similar) at school. Such items are not 'dangerous' in any way, shape, form or fashion. To me, it is indicative of a desire by those who are making the rules to brainwash students by instilling the idea that even thinking about something that even remotely looks like a weapon is 'wrong' or 'evil'. Do these same morons go through the history textbooks and edit out any depictions of or references to weapons? If so, I guess such things as the famous painting of Washington crossing the Delaware are out as are newspaper illustrations of various battles, any mentions of the myriad wars and assignations that have shaped world history or any depiction of forts, battleships or the like. In fact, I wonder how they study history, at all.Along with tossing out history, I guess literature has to go, too. I mean, just look at all the sword fights and so on in Shakespeare's works. Surely students wouldn't be allowed to read, watch or, horror of horrors, perform in such violent plays. Not just Shakespeare, though. Certainly there can be no discussion of Beowulf - who cares if it is the earliest known example of English (Old English) literature? It's just so violent with all those swords and cutting off heads and arms. There's too much violence depicted throughout the history of Art, too, so I guess most of that will have to go. We simply can't have students exposed to such things. What a bunch of malarkey.

The following is the logic that influences my decision. It is entirely possible that, at some point, I might make someone angry enough that their desire to kill me overrides their desire for self-preservation. Such an individual might just be willing to take a shot from a .380 and then risk getting shot again (and again) to kill me, regardless of the risk to himself. If such a time comes and such an individual is that determined, I honestly doubt that it will make any real difference whether I am carrying a .380, a .38 or a 9mm. Heck, even if I happen to choose to carry a .357 that day it may well make little difference. The above response is not meant to be in any way facetious - I am completely serious. I truly believe that an attacker who is willing and able to continue to attack after being shot with any handgun in .32acp or above would be likely to continue to attack after being shot with any handgun in .45acp or below. As you put it so very well, I am concerned with removing his will to fight and if simply being shot, period (even with a .380) won't do that, I don't believe than a 9mm, .40 or .45 will, either. That said, I am sometimes concerned about the ability of .380 JHP to penetrate very heavy, winter clothing. Luckily in the winter - when an attacker is more likely to be wearing heavy clothing - it is much easier to conceal/carry a larger (and larger caliber) firearm and in the summer, when the P3AT or 642 in a pocket or small belt holster fit best into my style of dress, an attacker is most likely going to be wearing light clothing that won't create a penetration issue. I can't carry at work so if it is warm weather and I am carrying, I will likely be wearing just a t-shirt and shorts. I am very warm natured (my normal, resting body temperature is often 99.9 degrees) and often can't stand even a very light cover garment - meaning that, in hot weather (for me) heat exhaustion or even heat stroke are much more likely threats than an assailant who will withstand being shot with a .380 (or .38 +P) to keep attacking me. That is why the P3AT and the 642 will see a lot more 'primary carry' time in the summer than in the winter. All of this ties into the OP's question in that I do think it is very important to make a good, informed decision when choosing SD ammo in .380 - especially when considering JHP ammo - because it isn't as powerful. While any old (modern) JHP, even the 'budget line' stuff might be 'fine' in 9mm or larger, I believe that .380 performance can greatly differ from one (even premium, JHP) kind of ammo to the next. I also firmly believe that - because of the 'pocket .380' craze started by the P3AT and ramped up by the LCP and other, small pistols - JHP in .380 has seen great advancement in the last, few years. IOW, this ain't your father's .380 and various ammo tests (both professional and home-grown) have shown that there is some modern, well-designed .380 JHP ammo that is perfectly capable of giving both penetration and expansion.

I actually think that Flo (on the Progressive commercials) is pretty hot. Not even sure I could say why but hot nonetheless.

Well, crap. After saying that, I went to restock on my Hydrashoks this weekend. The ammo in my P3AT has been in there for about a year or so and I don't have enough HS on hand to replace it. The problem is that I haven't seen any for months and, after calling around, I came to the determination that no one in the immediate area seems to have any in stock. I'm not going to purchase enough ammo at once to make online ordering worth my while so I decided I'd try a different type of ammo - one I can get locally. I've been using Winchester's PDX1 as my carry ammo in 9mm for my P95 (124 grain +P) and in .38 (130 grain +P) for my 642. When testing it out for accuracy and functionality, I have found it to be accurate and low on 'muzzle flash'. I don't doubt its capability for penetration from those two calibers (based on its penetration of well-seasoned boards) but haven't had a chance to test expansion. Anyhow, Bass Pro had some of the PDX1 in .380 in stock at $17.xx per twenty round box. I bought three boxes so I can at least test for functionality before I start carrying it. If I get the chance, when testing for funtionality I will do some (very) informal penetration/expansion testing with water jugs. I'll let you folks know how it goes. Due to the cost, except when testing for functionality, I usually only buy one or two boxes of SD ammo at a time. If PDX1 does well in .380, I am hoping it will be more available locally than the Hydrashoks. I guess the 'up' side to all this is that - while some of my other handguns do get carried occasionally, for various reasons - if the PDX1 does well then I can carry the same brand/type of ammo in the three handguns that most often play the role of 'primary carry'.

Glazed donuts are for sissified pansies who can't handle jelly or cream filled.

Bar none, no question the Travelocity commercial where the 'man' and his 'wife' and 'kids' are on the beach - you know, the one where he tells her she looks like a 'beach angel'? Those two don't even have to open their mouths - they just look annoying - but then they do talk and get even more annoying. My wife and I have actually discussed which one of them we want to punch in the face first. I have to opt for the guy since I don't really like the idea of hitting a woman - but would be tempted to make an exception.

Apparently, Dick's decided that they can make more money in that location using the space that used to be the hunting/shooting/fishing section to expand departments related to stuff like soccer, softball, baseball and the like. That is what the Dick's employee told me when I was in there while they were moving all the shooting, etc. stuff out. On another forum, some time back, one guy was talking about filling his old prescription bottles with flour and using those for targets. Said they explode with a nice puff of flour. At the time, I didn't take enough prescription medications to make that much of an option. Unfortunately, since my medical troubles last August, I now have enough empty prescription bottles that I am thinking of giving that a try. Of course, spent shotgun shells are fun. I've also read folks saying that they liked using Necco wafers (biodegradable) and the like. I imagine that cheap vanilla wafers, saltine crackers so on would work, too - might even be a good use for cookies, crackers, etc. that have gone stale (although my chickens usually get such things at our house.)

I have seen the theory put forth, before, that headshots with a .22 would be sufficient. I'm not so sure. It kind of depends on if simply damaging the brain, even a little, will kill them or not. Me, I'd rather err on the side of caution and assume that the brain must be mostly destroyed or, at least, significantly damaged. Think about it - judging by the (supposed) actions of zombies, it is likely that their higher brain functions have ceased, already, and it is probably just the more archaic portions (maybe the medulla oblongata or some, similar part) that is actually still functioning. As such, a .22 bullet in the forebrain would probably not even be a minor annoyance as that part of the brain would probably already be 'dead', anyhow.

I think it depends on where a person's physical strength/weaknesses lie. Case in point: my wife. Try as we might, we couldn't seem to find a semiauto that she could rack. Even when she could manage to rack one, with some difficulty, her ability to do so was such that she would never have been able to clear a jam in a 'real' situation. She tried the method described on Cornered Cat. Didn't work. She tried other, alternate methods as demonstrated to her by other folks who had trouble racking a slide. Didn't work. At first, she had some trouble with pulling the trigger on DA revolvers. Often, her hand would be shaking by the time she got a DA revolver to fire. Then one day I looked closely and realized that she had too much of her trigger finger through the trigger guard and was trying to pull the trigger with the second joint. Once I saw that and got her to adjust her technique, she could operate the trigger on most double-action revolvers just fine (one notable exception being the horrid trigger on a snub-nosed Taurus .22WMR she tried out at the LGS - but even I found that one hard to operate.) Don't get me wrong, she wasn't going to break Jerry Miculek's revolver speed shooting record or anything but she did well enough to fire the gun every time and get good hits on target. She ended up taking (and passing) her HCP class with a snub-nosed Rossi .357 (one of the 'Taurus' Rossi models) loaded with Remington UMC .38 Special FMJ. She has even gotten to the point that she can fire that gun in a one-handed grip with her strong hand and get good hits on a B27 target at 10 yards or so. The problem was (and this is something to consider), she wouldn't carry that revolver because it was too bulky and heavy. Because I have a Kel Tec P3AT (the recoil of it is too much for her hands to take), I had wanted her to try out a P32. Well, I had recommended the same to my mom who also wanted a small, lightweight, low recoil carry gun. My mom got one and loves it. My wife tried it out and ended up with one for her carry gun, too. She can rack the slide on it easily and reliably (even though she still has trouble with many other semi-autos), has no trouble with the DAO trigger and has declared it to be the only gun she needs. When I recently got a S&W 642 I wanted her to try it out just because I like her to be familiar with all of my carry guns just in case a situation arises when she has to pick one of them up and use it. She said that it was small and lightweight enough that she would carry something like that but the recoil was too much. She could use it, if she has to, but wouldn't choose to do so otherwise.

When I first started carrying - with the P3AT - I basically settled on Hydrashoks because that was the only 'premium' SD ammo I could find. Every time a new, improved type of .380 ammo comes out, I look at the test results, etc. and come to the conclusion that none of them are really better than those good, old Hydrashoks. HS don't seem to give as much expansion as some of the others but, in the tests (largely individual, not ammo company) that I have seen, they do give consistent expansion and good, reliable penetration. Because of that and the fact that I have already invested the $$$ to shoot enough HS through my pistol to know that they will cycle reliably, I just stick with Hydrashoks.

We went to the gun show that they sometimes have at the National Guard Armory in Maryville. I wanted to get a shotgun for my wife to try out and see if she liked shooting shotguns. She wanted a single for the simplicity/safety (easy to see if the hammer is cocked) and my two singles had too long a lop (I wasn't about to chop either of them as I have had them since I was in my teens.) She ended up picking out an older 20 gauge with a shorter (almost youth length) lop. While we were looking, I saw an old bolt-action 20 gauge with an adjustable choke. I didn't have a 20, had no experience with adjustable chokes and, at $79, the price was low enough that I was interested. It holds two rounds in the internal mag for a total of three rounds (with one in the chamber.) I think it is an old Sears gun or something similar. It is not chambered for 3 inch shells but has handled everything in 2 3/4 I have put through it just fine - from field loads up to buckshot and slugs (the info I found about 'accu-chokes' on the 'net said you just set the choke to wide-open for slugs.) It generally cycles pretty smoothly as long as I don't get in too big a hurry. I haven't shot it a whole lot but it has been fun to shoot when I did. The furniture is some kind of light weight wood so the gun doesn't weigh as much as it looks like it weighs. Being a 20, though, the recoil isn't bad at all despite the lack of weight. Here it is with the single shot my wife picked out (the recoil pad on the single makes it look longer than it is.) My wife has since decided that she doesn't care anything about shooting shotguns so I now claim both of them:

Better results? Maybe he wanted to get the job done with the smallest hole possible, especially if he planned to sell the head/hide. Besides, you said the .22 Mag killed the gator. Dead is dead and provided that the .22WMR killed them I don't see how a 9mm could kill them any deader. That said, if gators were among the likely threats I might come up against when messing in the garden, etc. then my yard/woods gun would quickly be changed from my Heritage with the .22WMR cylinder to my Super Blackhawk .44 Magnum. When dealing with critters that are both big enough and mean enough to eat me, ammo cost would be way down on my list of concerns.

Maybe spend four hours single-handedly holding off the Japanese, defending his position and saving injured comrades while killing 31 of the enemy with only a bolt-action rifle after having had a grenade go off in his hand, more or less blowing his hand off? Gurkha Lachhiman Gurung: Victoria Cross hero dies aged 93 | Mail Online I came across the above linked story a few months back after reading about a lone Gurkha, armed only with his kukhri, fighting something like 40 bandits on a train to prevent the rape of a female passenger. Those Gurkhas are definitely a bunch of bad asses.

Only insomuch as a .357 Magnum and a .38 Special are the 'same bullet, just a louder bang', IMO. In fact, however, .38 and .357 do seem to sometimes use the same bullet while most .22WMR bullets are nothing like their .22LR counterparts. Most .22WMR rounds I have seen use true jacketed bullets. The main exception to that rule are Winchester Dynapoints which are 45 grain, washed bullets in rounds that are downloaded a bit - apparently with the intent of mimicking the old WRF loads. Premium WMR hollowpoint rounds (such as Winchester Supreme) look more like high-end, centerfire SD bullets than anything I've ever seen in a .22LR case. Further, WMR bullets are not heeled and are crimped into their cases more like centerfire rounds. That said, I have to agree with others that a snubnosed DA revolver is probably not the best platform for WMR. I like the round and, within it's limitations, I like it as a handgun round. I like it in my NAA mini because even though you do lose some of the potential out of such a short barrel, I believe (and NAA's charts back up my belief) that the WMR gives you just a little more out of the little guys than does .22LR. Of course, the little mini, itself, is quite a compromise and is 'good' more because of its size, weight and my ability to fire it well using only my off (weak, left) hand - meaning I like it for a weak-hand BUG - than because I believe it to be a powerhouse. If it were a 'full sized' snubbie, it would be much less attractive, to me. I also like WMR out of my Heritage Rough Rider with its 6.5 inch barrel. I have seen more than one ballistics chart which indicated that a WMR round out of a handgun with a barrel of at least six or so inches in length would give velocity/energy numbers comparable with a .22LR out of a rifle. As a yard/woods gun that is impressive, to me. I tried mine out at 100 yards at the Spring Creek range a few years back. Shooting offhand, while I didn't exactly get anything I would call a 'group', I was able to 'dial in' a bit and get decent hits on paper with the limitations being more my shooting ability than anything to do with the gun or the WMR round. More apropos to this discussion, however, is that the target stands they were using at the time were plywood and those WMR rounds - from a handgun, remember - passed cleanly through the plywood and made satisfying 'thumps' in the dirt behind them. I'm talking nice, round holes - no keyholing - and enough energy left to make a thump and kick up a cloud of dust from the dirt berm a few yards behind the target stands after passing through the plywood. That is what convinced me that a WMR handgun ain't just a .22LR with a lot more noise. All that said, I'd still have a hard time coming up with a reason 'why' for owning a full-sized snubbie in WMR (as opposed to a NAA mini.) Of course, "I just want one," is always a valid reason but I can't even come up with a reason why I'd want one. We tried out a used Taurus snub in WMR one day before my wife settled on a carry gun. The trigger pull was horrible. Because of the trigger pull, neither of us were all that accurate with it. It was no smaller and weighed no less than a Taurus .38 on the same frame. The lessened recoil might have been an advantage over a .38 for a person with weak hands or other, physical disabilities but that advantage was negated by the extremely heavy trigger pull (a person with weak hands probably wouldn't be able to pull the trigger in the first place.) All in all, if I wanted a small, short-barreled revolver in .22WMR just for fun or for a woods gun, etc. then I'd probably look at one of the 3 inch barreled ones from Heritage - probably one with a birds head grip - and I'd definitely get both the WMR and the LR cylinder.

I started to post this as a response to a post by OhShoot in the Shell Cracker thread but decided that it probably strayed far enough afield from the OP to need to be its own thread. I left the OhShoot quote in, though, so my post would make sense. I'm not crazy about stripe/hybrid bass. I don't generally care for 'strong' fish taste (which is probably why I like crappie.) I am not all that fond of catfish. Stripe isn't bad but isn't my favorite. I imagine if the length limit to keep them wasn't 15 inches (at least that was the limit the last time I fished for them), smaller fish would probably make for better eating than the ones I was able to legally keep/eat. Now, as far as saltwater fishing goes, I have only done that twice. The first time was a few years back on one of the large, group boats out of Panama City Beach (one of Captain Anderson's boats.) We really only caught vermillion snapper and a trigger fish - not too bad beer battered and deep fried but not great, either. The second time was last week (we went to Panama City Beach and Gulf Shores in the camping trailer for vacation - members of my wife's family went with us to PCB in her grandfather's RV but they stayed there when we went to Gulf Shores.) We found that, with a group our size, we could go on a charter boat for about twenty bucks each more than taking one of the big, group boats. Went with an outfit called Kelley Girl Charters and I caught this amberjack: this dolphinfish (no, it wasn't a big one but that is the one type fish I have most 'dreamed' of catching): and we caught several Spanish mackerel: There were seven of us and we all caught a keeper amberjack (minimum is 30 inches at the fork of the tail - ours were around 32-34 inches), we caught a boatload of mackerel and I caught that one mahi-mahi. Usually, mackerel is too strong/fishy for me but I had heard that they are pretty good if you cook them the day you catch them but that they don't freeze very well. We kept enough to try and I gave the rest to the crew. After we picked up the processed fish from the dock (I would have processed them, myself, if there hadn't been so much) and got back to the campground, I squeezed juice from a couple of fresh lemons over the mackerel filets and tossed the squeezed-out wedges in a ziplock bag with the fish then left them on ice in the bag for a couple of hours. Grilled them skin-side down brushed with olive oil and hit with just a little salt and pepper and was surprised at how good they were. We ate part of the amberjack that night, too. I know some folks don't like amberjack (I have read complaints of lots of worms in the meat, though that wasn't much of a problem with these, and they can apparently get really dry/tough if you don't cook them right.) Myself, I think amberjack is just as good as grouper and think of the two as being very similar. Part of the AJ got beer battered and deep fried (the members of my wife's family who were with us prefer that method of cooking fish although they were pleasantly surprised at how much they liked the grilled fish, too - I had taken my outdoor, propane-fuel fryer just in case.) Some of the AJ got brushed with olive oil and seasoned with a blend of my own making that I call my Caribbean blend (similar to a jerk blend but not exactly) - that was my mom's favorite of all. I also went ahead and grilled the mahi-mahi that I caught. Good blackened mahi-mahi is probably my #1 favorite fish to eat so I hit it with a little olive oil and blackening rub (the blackening rub is also my own concoction) and grilled that up. That was, as I expected, my absolute favorite with the grilled AJ coming in a not too distant second. To round it out, I made some fries (chips) that I cooked using the pommes frites double-cooking method. Since I was frying and grilling fish at the same time, my sister-in-law helped me keep an eye on the grilled fish (had it on a charcoal grill) while she used the portable gas grill to grill some corn and garlic bread. Here are the results - my dinner plate that night (no corn in the pic - I recently had a couple of teeth pulled and wasn't quite up to eating corn, yet.) A little squeeze of lemon on the fish and some malt vinegar on the 'chips' and this made a pretty good meal: I took this pic to show the size of the amberjack steaks. Each fish had two of these per side and we caught seven fish. I only cooked three AJ steaks that night so we came back with 25 of them in the camping trailer's freezer. AJ supposedly freezes pretty well so there should be some good culinary reminders of our trip later this summer. This was our total haul. Not bad for only a four hour trip. We went out fishing for amberjack - the mahi and mackerel were just 'bonus' fish that we caught trolling on the way back from catching amberjack (though catching the mahi made me happiest.) We actually caught more 'keeper' amberjack that this but, as we could only keep one each, we threw all but the largest ones back. Of course, on a trip like this the haul speaks more for the skill of the skipper and deckhand than any real fishing skill on our part. They found the fish, rigged the poles and told us what to do - we just reeled them in (actually, only my brother-in-law and I were able to reel in the amberjack completely unassisted - those things are a fun fight and we helped the others land theirs.):

I often wear either pants or shorts with an elastic waistband and no belt loops when I am just hanging around the house. For me, I found a great way to carry is with a belly band. I don't wear it around my belly, though. Instead, I wear it down around my hips with the gun at about 3 0'clock and the grips just sticking up above my waistband. Under a t-shirt, my P3AT completely disappears in that setup. I can also carry my CZ 82 in it pretty comfortably but usually have to stick the tail of my t-shirt between my skin and the gun so the grips don't dig into my side. If I am feeling really lazy, I'll sometimes just drop my NAA mini .22WMR in a nylon pocket holster in my pocket. That thing is so light that it doesn't even drag down pants/shorts with elastic waistbands.

Alright, I've Googled every variation of T's Barbecue (BBQ, Bar B Que, etc.) that I can think of and am getting nowhere. I love good barbecue. I have been known - especially when somewhere out of town - to stop at two or three different barbecue joints, consecutively, and try a small sandwich at each just to be able to compare them (my wife calls those occasions my 'barbecue crawls', like some folks do pub crawls.) The best barbecue I have had around here, lately, is at Full Service in Maryville. I have never heard of this T's so could you please provide more detail (more specific location or a phone number where I could call them, etc.) We wander in the direction of PF, GB, Sevierville pretty often and I would certainly not be beyond driving up there just to try some good barbecue. Heck, we used to drive down to Cleveland to get barbecue at a place called Phil's Country Biscuit and Barbecue (now closed, sadly - was some of the best, if not the best, I have ever had.)

We spent last week on vacation in Panama City Beach, Florida and Gulf Shores, Alabama. I was a bit nervous on the trip down because of Florida's 'concealed only' law. I even bought a fanny pack made for concealed carry at the last gun show so I'd be sure to remain 100% concealed while in Florida and then I ended up not really even using it. I wore shorts and t-shirts the entire time in Florida and carried my S&W 642 in a pocket holster in my right front pocket every day. No one seemed to notice or care. I did cut a little rectangle from a piece of leather left over from a holster making project to slide in the pocket in front of the holster to guard against printing, just in case. The only time I didn't carry it was when we went deep sea fishing (caught a bunch of amberjack, several spanish mackerel and I caught a dolphinfish/mahi-mahi, albeit a small one, which is something I really wanted to do.) We were in Florida from Sunday until Wednesday and I never had a bit of trouble carrying. That said, I was a bit relieved when we headed to Alabama where open carry is allowed. The only time carrying was even an issue was the night my wife wanted to go to LuLu's (owned by Lucy Buffet, Jimmy Buffet's sister.) They were crowded and on a long wait but offered first-come, first-served seating in the bar area. I had to tell them, "No thanks, we'll wait," because, even though it is legal in Alabama to eat in a restaurant where alcohol is served, any part of the restaurant where the sale of alcohol is the primary purpose is legally off limits. That meant we waited for nearly two hours for a table to come open. I almost never OC but I do often carry in an OWB holster with only a thin, unbuttoned shirt as a cover garment. In fact, that is my preferred method of carrying when I'm not going to be somewhere that absolute concealment might be an issue. In the winter, I often carry my Ruger P95 in an OWB with a slightly thicker, unbuttoned shirt, vest (no, not a shoot-me-first vest) or jacket for cover. I consider that to be 'casually concealed' and don't worry too much if I get 'made'. I'd not be comfortable carrying with that setup in Florida. I didn't notice a single place anywhere in Florida or Alabama that was posted. Maybe that is because the signs don't have force of law, anyway, I don't know. Oh, and Florida may be technically 'hotter' than TN but the heat sure wasn't as stifling/uncomfortable - at least not around Panama City Beach. Maybe it has something to do with the ocean breezes or something. It is much more uncomfortable here right now than it was in Florida last week. Of course, that could also simply be the effects of being on vacation.

FWIW, the story on the Kel Tec forum is that the P40 was very prone to limp-wristing by folks who weren't familiar with shooting light, compact pistols. Supposedly, people were sending them back to be 'repaired' when there was nothing wrong with them except shooter error. Apparently, it became more trouble/costly for Kel Tec to keep tying up their service department 'repairing' pistols that weren't broken than the P40 sales were worth so the pistol was discontinued. There are still guys on that forum who own and carry a P40 - either a factory gun or a P11 with a .40 caliber conversion kit (there are also a few .357 Sig conversion kits out there) and they seem to like them. Like the P11, the P40 was a double-stack pistol while the PF9 is a single stack.

At one point, my mom's SD gun was a semiauto .22 rifle that wasn't what I considered to be terribly reliable. She has been shooting all of her life but most of her experience with handguns has been with 'mouse guns'. I wanted to see how she would do with a semiauto in 9mm for HD (due to various factors including ammo availability and cost) but didn't want to go 'high dollar' in case she didn't take to it. I ended up buying a 9mm HiPoint for her to try out/get familiar with the caliber, etc. and at least have something better than that .22 rifle for HD. I figured she could trade the HiPoint for something 'better' if she decided she liked 9mm. Long story short, she really likes that pistol and it isn't going anywhere. It is accurate, easy for her to shoot and works just fine. In fact, despite me offering to let her use any of my handguns (including my S&W 22A) to qualify for her carry permit, she opted to use the HiPoint and apparently shot better than anyone else in her group (including a couple of guys who had lasers mounted on their guns.) It isn't her carry gun (she has opted for a Kel Tec P32 for that) but it does everything she needs a 9mm pistol to do and does it quite well, in fact. As long as I have another choice, would I carry a HiPoint? Nope - but then as long as I have a choice I won't carry any striker-fired pistol. I prefer DA or DAO revolvers and hammered, DAO or DA/SA pistols for carry. Plus, as Mike.357 pointed out, the mag capacity is a drawback for such a big, bulky gun. Would I trust my life to a HiPoint? Yep, assuming I had tested it enough to be comfortable. In fact, to a certain extent I have - my 995 carbine was my 'bump in the night' gun until I got a shtogun that is set up for HD use. I have heard a rumor here and there that, in a reversal of their past decision, HiPoint might actually release a slightly higher capacity factory mag option for the carbines. To my mind, that would really increase the appeal of their carbines.