DocHawk

2nd gen xTerra might check all the boxes for you. Might need to be in rough cosmetic condition for your budget, but they are very reliable.

I am a collector, with an especially soft spot for Marlins and Winchesters. If I could only have one, it would be a model 94 or equivalent from one of those two manufacturers, carbine length, 357Mag. Marlin, Winchester or Rossi on a budget because these are more or less true to the classic design. Get one without a cross-bolt safety if possible, which is going to push your budget up towards $1000+. Don't get a Henry (fine rifles, I own several) unless it is a side gate loader. Nothing is more un-John Wayne than pulling a magazine tube sleeve out the front of your manly rifle and loading cartridges in the nose like a kid's .22LR. This is your one lever gun; get the whole and proper experience. Carbine length to enjoy the handy nature of this lovely rifle. Rifles get front heavy and if you ever want to play from horseback or in cowboy action you'll wish it were shorter. 357Mag because 38Spc is just about the cheapest way you can enjoy a centerfire lever gun, and you still have the 357Mag on tap to take down game if you want. Enjoy! The lever gun is one of the best things about shooting, period.

After getting tired of scrounging for these and then fearing dropping them once I bought them, I converted Valmet mags out of polymer mags; they work flawlessly in my Valmet. $45 each plus the cost of the mag (or provide one), made to order.

I did not realize that Memphis Police Director CJ Davis had been previously fired from Atlanta PD. As Assistant Chief of Atlanta PD in 2008, she directed the department not to investigate a man who was sexually abusing children, because he was married to an Atlanta PD Sergeant. After APD failed to investigate, a federal investigation led to the molester pleading guilty to federal charges related to producing child pornography (in which he raped minors). This lady protected a child rapist. I have never been impressed with Davis. She's the gal who left her service handgun in her Porsche last year while she went home decor shopping, and got it stolen. She utterly failed to protect the city from violent protests in 2021, and nearly 700 people have suffered violent deaths in Memphis over the past 2 years. She oversaw diversity quota hiring of officers that subverted established police minimum standards and background qualifications. I believe all five of the officers initially fired in the Tyre Nichols incident were hires under those reduced hiring standards. I'm wondering where is the outrage over this Peter Principle Person leading MPD? Is it simply the same progressive city politics that put those unqualified officers on the streets (in Davis' SCORPION unit, no less) that protect this unqualified Chief, because she's black? It shouldn't be about the color of her skin. It should be about her character, and her professional results. Well, as command staff of a major metro PD, she actively and deliberately protected a man who continued to rape children under her protection. That is the same moral and professional conduct that her officers engaged in against Tyre Nichols. which she herself said left her "horrified," "disgusted," and "confused."

It looks like that's a DPMS pattern LR308, not an AR10. They are good guns, and capable of being much more accurate than the PTR, FAL, or even SCAR-type piston guns if you get something other than a Bear Creek barrel. Even the heavy-for-class BCA is still lighter than the rifles you mentioned, though - you may be having optimistic memory. The BCA might be 8 or 9 lbs... those old battle rifles are all 10lbs dry. If you want something more tactical/battle rifle handy, try Ruger's new SFAR. All the punch of a 308 using essentially AR15-sized hardware and furniture. It is amazing - the weight feels like an AR in the hand. I just picked one up and kitted it out; I like it so much, I want to get another one. I will wait until they come out with a 6.5 Creedmoor version before dropping the coin into a second one. They do not take typical DPMS pattern LR308 barrels due to the hybrid sizing.

There isn't a one-size-fits-all answer. The most important question to answer is, what's your mission profile/use case? What do you want the rifle to do for you? What barrel do you have on there? Hunting Rifle Battle Rifle DMR Benchrest Precision Tactical SPR Each of these roles (or your own special case) dictate different stock and grip attributes. Nobody can give you a meaningful answer to your question without knowing what it is for.

Welcome, Dan. I'm local to you, hopefully we'll see each other at an event or on the range sometime. I'm a gunsmith and instructor. Sounds like you enjoy your Glocks?

Still ready to buy at your current price ($450), I'm just in Chattanooga. Do you get over this way at all?

Just sold my 66-2 locally for 900. Good condition with Pachmyer grips. For reference.

I can probably find something you're looking for in the safe. Will write tomorrow. Where are you? I'm in Chattanooga.

Ooooh. What kind of groups does she shoot at 100 yards? Also, please PM me the serial #

I swap (sometimes twice in a day) between guns depending on activity and outfit. The key is, the manual of arms for all my guns is the same, for all carry locations. My P320's, P365, and M&P 2.0 are different sizes and calibers for different situations. The P365 fits in a dang bathing suit. One P320 is a compact and streamlined for IWB carry. Another P320 compact is kitted with a 400 lumen weapon light. Takes more to conceal but still fits IWB with jeans and a tee shirt. The M&P 10mm goes OWB or on a chest rig depending on the activity. All of these firearms (and every other handgun I carry for immediate use) are striker fired without a thumb safety, carried condition 1. The procedure for draw and defensive use is the same. My hands and eyes don't care which one is in my hands, and I don't have to waste a single mental clock cycle on considering which gun it is, which condition I left the thumb safety in, whether the trigger is going to be a DA or SA press, etc. My entire OODA loop is dedicated to dealing with the threat. I am a huge fan of SAO hammer fired guns, SA/DA combat pistols and competition handguns, revolvers of all eras, etc. I've carried a Colt SAA in a cowboy crossdraw holster as well as a Western thigh holster around town in Tombstone, AZ, where I have a ranch. Even with the loaded cowboy gun on my belt, I had the P365 (or prior to that, a G43) IWB at the opposite location (appendix or 3 o'clock) to use for self defense. That modern firearm has come in handy on more than one occasion, especially in Tombstone.

Here are the findings of Dean Weingarten's study, Handgun or Pistol Against Bear Attacks (2021) 104 cases, 97% Effective Key Takeaways Pistol shots stopped 97% of the bear attacks. 12.5% of shooters were injured after firing on the bear. Weaker ammo needed more shots to stop the attack than stronger ammo. Hollow points needed more shots; multiple reports cited them glancing off of bear skulls. The 4 failures: .22lr vs. polar bear, .38 special vs. black bear, .357 Magnum vs. grizzly bear, .45 ACP vs. black bear. 5 incidents were initiated by dog(s). Dogs assisted in 2 incidents, buying time for the owner to fire. Several successful uses of firearms followed the failure of pepper spray. Warning shots were successful about half the time they were tried. Aiming for the heart or lungs was highly effective By the way, this is in direct conflict with the "use bear spray" results you'll get if you google "firearm or bear spray vs bear." Notice who posts and parrots those results: typically progressive, liberal, and conservationist sources. The most-often cited studies on these pages are BYU's 2012 study, which found firearms generally ineffective and bear spray 97% effective. However, dissecting their methodology reveals a grossly biased study, where incidents in which a person carrying a gun but not drawing it were counted as gun failures, but only incidents with ideal conditions in which the bear spray was deployed prior to close contact with the bear were counted. When the samples are evaluated using similar deployment criterion, the statistics are reversed. Bias in science, sucks.

Therein is the essence of the issue. If we have a functioning definition of an adult, the age of emancipation, draft age, and age of criminal liability, then all the rights, privileges and protections of adult citizenship should thence apply. If we say yeah but not these rights or those rights and cite maturity, then we need to recalibrate the society's definition of the age of majority for all things. My son is 50 days away from 18. He is a better marksman than most LE and military, and better at actually fighting his handgun than most gun owners. At the age of 10, his *younger* brother beat 44 adults including SWAT, Recon Marines, Sheriff Deputies and several veterans in a man-on-man hostage rescue competition. Hostage rescue shot from concealment followed by cleanup of two more aggressors. Smoked 'em. Give either boy a scenario, and you'll be amazed at their situational awareness and self defense methodology. Hopefully they are never in fear for their lives, but they've trained for a very bad day to survive physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. On the other hand, some of their classmates are eating Tide Pods. So yeah, it's a struggle.

The unwritten shorthand is that the hard cast bullet is assumed to have a flat, wide meplat with sharp edges for similar penetration to FMJ but better wound channel creation. The problem is - and is seldom addressed - is that the best bullet design with a purely flat meplat would probably not feed reliably out of a semiautomatic. A deep penetrating, expanding JHP is not a bad choice for bear, in my opinion. Most LE "barrier blind" rounds (another misnomer) would do well. Think Hornady Critical Duty. Sacrilege, they say. Well, "they" probably haven't actually read the scholarly study of human/bear encounters that concluded every single person who actually employed their firearm against the attacking bear, survived - and almost all without injury. *Most* of those engagements were with 9mm and 40S&W law enforcement ammo. The one guy who shot his bear and survived with the most serious wounds did so with his toes shot off - he put his legs up in defense, and proceeded to shoot the bear through his own feet in the heat of the moment. Another pair of guys got thrice pounced by a very determined grizzly, and successfully drove him off (3 times) with an itty bitty micro 9mm carry handgun. A fascinating study, well worth the read. I'll come back and link it if I get around to it. The moral of the story is, it matters more how you carry and whether you draw, than precisely what you draw. Having said all that, I run high pressure/high velocity 10mm JHP out of a 4.6" M&P 2.0 10mm when I'm in the woods. And sometimes even when I'm not!

Do you have a link to this case?

With respect to the purists above, and posting as a 1911 collector (Vintage 1911 Collector's Association Member #44), I disagree with the notion that your first 1911 needs to be a USGI base model. With an $1800 budget, you don't need to hobble yourself with the Great Granddaddy warhorse that has since been improved several generations hence. It is a testimony to the 1911's design that, over a century after its introduction (at the dawn of semiautomatic handguns, no less), it has been able to be refined and improved to be a viable contender with cutting-edge modern designs using engineering methods, CNC milling, metals, and synthetic materials that hadn't even been dreamed of let alone implemented when John Moses Browning blessed us with the 1911. As a modern handgun shooter, you may in fact be somewhat soured on the 1911 platform by the original's small beavertail, lack of trigger finger and grip scalloping, lack of checkering on the straps, lack of an accessory rail, poor irreplaceable sights, lesser slide serrations, and/or many of the other features that have since been greatly improved as semiauto experience and engineering have marched forward. There's absolutely no good reason to start there. Once you love the platform, expand backwards and pick up something original. I own Colts ranging from the pre-1911 1903 Pocket Hammerless, to US Property-marked 1911's and 1911A1's from both World Wars, to some of their most desirable offerings from the postwar era through the 1980's. As a bona-fide Colt collector, I urge you not to select a modern Colt. The company went tragically downhill since the mid-1980's and especially beginning in the late '90's, Colt's modern semiautmatic offerings have suffered from poor quality control, poor material quality, and poor fitment/assembly. They have recently scored a big turnaround with their modern revolver redesigns, but that has not translated to their semiautomatics. This may change with CZ's takeover of Colt. As a retail gunsmith, I have a unique perspective on firearms quality - I get to see what comes across my counter for repair. A higher incidence of Colt 1911-pattern guns since about 2000 have had cracked frames, cycling and feed issues from the factory, poor accuracy compared to similar-priced guns, and other issues including fundamental fitment deficiencies affecting reliability, accuracy or ease of use. While they don't descend to the level of "lemons," the defect rate is out of all proportion to their cost. Get yourself a railed Sig 1911, black FDE or stainless as you prefer (the stainless is exceptionally good). Excellent in the hand, great modern features without going too far astray of what a 1911 is, accurate, and fantastic factory quality including especially, fitment. You won't spend anywhere near your budget, leaving you room for ammo and accessories. You'll have enough of a baseline to help you determine whether you like the platform or not, and you will not have "wasted" a slot on the notion that well, that wasn't the best of what the 1911 has to offer. Imagine putting $600 into a Rock Island (great guns by the way, especially at the price), not liking the clunky old design, and then having strangers chime in, "well they make better ones, you should give it a fair chance and buy a good modern one, you can't compare the old 1911 to modern guns." If you don't like Sig, get a Springfield TRP or one of the varios Operators, Smith Performance Center, or Rock Island Tac Standard. But whatever you do, get it in .45 so you can understand what the gun can really do. The big holes are fun, and you owe yourself the understanding of what the "push" of a .45's recoil feels like in a big handgun compared to the "snap" of a 9mm.

Thanks for the reference. I love *data*! You may also find some great info on luckygunner... check out https://www.luckygunner.com/labs/self-defense-ammo-ballistic-tests/

Oh no. Buried in the article is the mention of a long gun.

I have a pair of consecutive serial number 92 Extreme's from the initial run. I was so happy to see my first service pistol turned into something more modern, with a frame mounted selector. It handles and shoots very well... more of a range toy though, as it is just about as heavy as a carbine.

I agree with all above.

Me too. However if I get hired to play the bad guy in the next Liam Neeson movie, all bets are off.

There's at least 3 people (including me) who might be interested in this, but we're waiting for more info...

As a S&W wheelgun collector, I just want to chime in that this is the best version of this gun to own. The -2 model is the last pinned & recessed Model 29 with all the manufacturing upgrades before they downgraded the gun for manufacturing cost savings in subsequent revisions. A great firearm... Harry Callahan says so!

I see gun upgrades almost exactly the same as car upgrades. A Heartbeat supercharger, T1 full suspension, precooler, MRR Flow Forged wheels, and custom wrap might have cost half as much again as the Corvette, but all together they add maybe 5%-10% to the market value. You might get lucky and find the just-right person who wanted that exact setup, but he still isn't going to pay what you put into it. Those "pay me what I paid" ads tend to stay up forever.