DocHawk

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.

I have a few dozen suppressor hosts; I really enjoy playing and training with suppressed firearms. In .45, my favorite is my FNX-45 Tactical. It comes from the factory with so many desirable features that take significant modification/upgrades on other handguns. Suppressor height sights, unobtrusive factory threaded barrel, optics cut with all the required plates, high capacity for a .45, user-configurable modularity to accommodate your hand size. It's reliable with everything I've put on it - Osprey, Omega 45K, Hybrid, Gemtec-45, Rugged Obsidian, and a couple others. I also have a 1911, 2011, Para double stack, G21, HK USSOCOM Mk23, M&P 2.0, and a couple also-rans that I took the threads back out of. Only the Mk23 runs as reliably perfect as the FNX, but it is a pig of a gun... I feel like I might as well be carrying my UMP45. The FNX lives full time with my Osprey on its nose. Feeds any ammo, any weight. Slap rack aim pop.

Watching...

Gorgeous, rare, and desirable. GLWS.

I'm not saying I cried, but my eyes welled up a little bit.

Nyet, all this is fix with dzenjuine karbine drill, two times for day, to be going up and down hill, fire karbine hit targets. You run, hit targets. Groundnyy, hit targets. You crawl, hit targets. You diabetic, take jumping for to hit targets. You need svezhest. Freshness, da! Go, karbine drill, go now!

Ahh, a few upgrades from Talaria I see. I did the same thing - literally imported my own container to my own specs and sold them through my gun store as the Stealth Bee. Battery, controller, lights, run silent/run dark mode, forks, and tires. We even got MARSOC to buy one, and we later saw the concept (not ours) in action in Ukraine.

So glad there was a spot in the Scenic City for you. Heal well. Sounds like the barreled assembly is shootable; it's probably a combination of issues with furniture and accessory mounting throwing off the rifle.

If you wander through Chattanooga, I'll take a look at it while you wait just to give you a read on issues I see and line you out on the direction(s) you might want to go. There are so many things that can detract from a rifle's accuracy, and those things are all the more numerous with an AK design. Scope mounting is the most common culprit, although you've obviously identified another fundamental if your stock is wobbling. Out of curiosity, can you be more specific with your description of "bizzare accuracy issues"?

We ride SurRons all the time out here in Chattanooga! We have 4 of them, with mild upgrades. Why do you call it a Sting? Your nickname for the Light Bee? Get yourself a good LED as the first upgrade. They are so fast, they can outrun that stock headlight at night.

Well, it did not work out. The auction bids went up well over what the lathe and mill are worth in the last two minutes. I was high bid until the end, but I was not going to overpay just for the sake of winning. I'll hit you guys up the next time I'm up in Music City just to see who I can treat to lunch, anyway! Thank you for being willing. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Grateful, sir. I'll send you a private message with my contact info and we can keep in touch. If we can get one or two more people, it will be easy. I mostly figure this will be rocking/using a lever to get one side up on pipes (or my pallet jack and piano dollies), and then rolling it out onto the trailer. There shouldn't be much lifting at all. Going for "smarter not harder."

[Edit: Cancelled; I didn't get the equipment purchased after all.] I posted this in the Nashville Club, but I've since realized that Club content doesn't show up on the main site, so I'm reposting in the main chat. Would anyone happen to be available for an hour or two of firearms-related labor next Thursday or Friday? I'm a gunsmith, recently relocated to Chattanooga from San Diego. My shop is still active in Commiefornia, so that's where all my equipment is. As I've grown into Tennessee I have come to find that professional gunsmithing is fairly rare out here (the opposite of what I expected, moving to such a gun-friendly state). So, I have decided to buy another lathe, mill, etc. and set up another shop in my new hometown. I have a line on a mill and lathe located in the Rosebank area of Nashville. If I get it done, is there anyone who would be willing to help me get these loaded for transportation? I have a hydraulic drop-deck trailer that literally puts the flatbed on the ground, so there's no crazy lift to do, but a 1000# metal lathe is just too much for one man to shimmy around with rollers, pipe and a pallet jack. I'm looking at December 29th or 30th, but I could float it a day or three. I'd be happy to pay for your time, or even happier to treat you to lunch, talk guns and make new friends. Merry Christmas!

Nobody uses Kydex holsters? That's all I use anymore... the biggest considerations being active retention without needing an active defeat, and maintaining shape when the gun is drawn, so that I can reholster without using my support hand (or worse, root around with the muzzle) to open the mouth of the holster.