1gewehr

Back in WWII, the soldiers were fighting hard, and msotly living off of Combat Rations.  As you can imagine, Combat Rations keep you alive and healthy, but aren't really very tasty.  Eventually, the upper brass decided that the troops needed some rewards for all the hard fighting.  So a convoy of ships full of cigarettes, beer, and all sorts of tasty treats was assembled and sent across the Pacific. After a long, dangerous voyage, a Japanese submarine sighted the convoy.  They knew that they would only be able to get off one shot before the escorts started chasing them.  So, they fired all of the loaded torpedoes in one volley and then dove to safety.  As luck would have it, only one of the toredoes hit a ship, and it wasn't the ship with beer, cigarettes, or sweets. In celebration, all the troops (and Marines) celebrated the arrival of the convoy.  They laughed and shouted that the Japanese "Only Sink the Mayo".  That has been corrupted by time into Sinko de Mayo.   Y'all have fun but be safe!

Realistically, if you can shoot 'minute of Bad Guy' at 15 ft with a pocket pistol after a fast draw, you're pretty good. For practical purposes, 'Minute of Bad Guy is a 15" circle representing a center of mass hit.  Almost all self-defense shootings happen at close range.    With time to aim and proper hold and controlled breathing, popping clay pigeons at 100 yards is a lot of fun with a full-sized pistol.  I've done it with 1911s, CZ75, .357 revolvers, and other pistols.  With a Colt or S&W 6" barrel .357 revolver, it's hardly even a challenge once you determine the proper hold-over.  Shorter barrels mean shorter sight radius and more of a challenge.

It was mostly Austin residents who heard or saw the shooting and responded with their own weapons.  There were many acts of bravery that day by citizens who risked their lives to get those who were shot to safety.  Whitman used the wounded in his sight as bait to draw others out to shoot at.

The brass is available from many sources including Grafs.  It's the same brass dimensions as the GP11.  Or, if you know someone with a K31 who has been shooting Prvi or other Boxer-primed ammo, you might sweet-talk them out of their once-fired brass.

I use 6.4gr of Power Pistol with a 124gr Rem Golden Sabre or 124gr Winchester bulk round nose.  That gets me right at 1200fps from my CZ75, and about 1350fps from my Sterling with a 10" barrel.  That will probably get you to about 1450fps from a 16" barrel.   For powder around Nashville, try Reloaders Bench in Mt Juliet or Outpost Armory at exit 89 on I-24 south of Murfreesboro.  I'm sure somebody nearer to Memphis carries a decent selection of powder, though.

Even at the current inflated prices, .22 ammo is still half of the cost of centerfire ammo.  Lower price equals more shooting.  But I see a lot more .22 coming on the market lately.  Prices will start falling and you will eventually see it at Walmart again.

Time to muddy the water. I just bought a VZ2008 rifle in 7.62x39.  It's a semi-auto only copy of the Czech VZ58 service rifle.  I remembered shooting one while in the Army many years ago and liked it much better than any AK I've seen.   The VZ2008 is a decent choice for home defense.  Lighter than an AK, very compact with the folding stock, more ergonomic than the AK variants (like THAT'S hard to do!), has a bolt hold-open, more accurate, and spare parts are very cheap right now.  Drawback is that it doesn't use the same magazines as the AK.  But the magazines are aluminum, high quality, and very light compared to the heavy steel AK mags.  Cost is over $600.  But that's seems to be what AKs are going for as well.   BTW, after coming home from the range, my wife stole the VZ2008. :shrug:

I've got a couple of Glocks.  Nice, reliable, and accurate pistols.  I don't dislike them, but I don't have any particular fondness for them either.  On my druthers list, they are right underneath:  CZ75, Browning GP 1935, Colt Trooper .357, Colt Government 1911A1, S&W M66, S&W M28, and Walther P-1/P-38. But they are right above: Luger P-08, Springfield XD, any S&W semi-auto, CZ-52, and French PA-15.   Glocks aren't my thing.  Isn't it a good thing that we have a reasonably free market to provide lots of choices?

Most people want something powerful, reliable, and intimidating for their first handgun.  This is a bad idea for a LOT of reasons.  Your first handgun should always be a .22lr.   1)  Bad habits learned with your first handgun are very difficult to un-learn.  Flinching, bad hand position, anticipating recoil, and lots of other bad habits are usually the result of buying a full-power handgun first. 2)  Accuracy and good habits are formed with practice.  The best shooters in the world go through thousands of rounds each MONTH!  While I'm not suggesting that every shooter needs to do this, I am saying that a new shooter needs to be prepared to go through more than a couple of boxes and  to learn to shoot properly.  That costs money.  You are much less likely to develop 'wallet-flinch' when buying .22 than when buying 9mm.  And you are more likely to be willing to buy a decent amount of ammo, rather than just a box or two. 3)  If you are asking what gun to get, it means that you really don't yet know what you like or dislike.  Buy the .22 first, and that will let you develop opinions based on experience.  There is a reason that there are hundreds of handgun models on the market.  Not everyone likes the same things.  Use a .22 to learn at a much lower cost. 4)  Get training.  Sure, I know that you and your buddies have been reducing beer cans to aluminum trash for years.  Not even close to being useful.  You've learned bad habits.  Get a basic pistol course.  Pretend that you've never held a pistol before so that you'll actually listen.  Women usually do better than men in basic pistol courses because they don't ASSUME that they know anything.  Training with a .22 is every bit as useful as training with a larger caliber. 5)  Repeat #2 above.  I no longer compete.  But I still go through over 1000rds of .22 and 9mm each month to keep my skills from deteriorating too fast.  I shoot mostly .22 as you use the exact same skills for less than a fourth of the cost. 6)  There is almost nothing that you can do with a larger caliber that you can't do with a .22.  Aside from hunting larger critters, the .22 is a remarkably versatile round.  And several hits with a .22 are much more useful for self-defense than any number of misses.  A .22 is used for home defense about as often as all other calibers combined. 7)  You never outgrow a .22.  If you decide to pass on the shooting sport to friends and family, you will want a .22 to get them started.   Lastly, buy quality.  Cheap guns wear out more quickly and aren't as accurate or reliable.  There are a lot of choices for quality, reliable, and accurate .22 pistols in the $300 range. 

Simple answer:  "If someone holds a knife to your Wife's/Daughter's throat and hauls her into a back alley to rape and possibly kill them, would you rather I had my pistol or a cell phone?"

Sorry, I also vote for 'Not Funny'.  Absurd, cruel, and pointless.

Put a bayonet on a long Mosin Nagant and you can poke them from the end of the hallway!  Get an M44 Mosin carbine and the fight will be over if you fire one round.  After that intruders will be deaf and blind and you can use the bayonet! As an FYI, the Russian spike bayonet will very easily go through most interior doors and walls!   Personally, I use a Brown Bess Musket with bayonet for home defense.  If the .75 ball with four buckshot doesn't get them, then the huge muzzle blast and flash from 90 grains of black powder will stun them.  Lastly, if they are not out of the fight yet, then seeing my overweight, naked body come screaming down the hall out of the smoke cloud six feet behind a long, shiny bayonet had better do the trick! :eek:

Do not use the surplus Tokarev ammo.  You have a classic pistol designed almost 120 years ago for a very early smokeless cartridge.  Don't take chances on cheap ammo.  If you are going to shoot it, get new springs for it first!  http://www.gunsprings.com/Semi-Auto%20Pistols/MAUSER/1896-1912%20%28BROOMHANDLE%29/cID1/mID40/dID172   The 7.65mm Parabellum or .30 Luger cartridge is an entirely different round.  Less powerful as well.   The C96 was in continuous production from 1896 through 1945 in Germany.  While expensive to make, they were very popular as they handle and shoot well.  Even Winston Churchill used one at the Battle of Omdurman in 1898 as a young officer.  Many were also made in China in the 1920's and 30's.    You should try to find a wooden stock/holster for it.  It is legal to shoot with one (even a reproduction), and it makes a nice little carbine.

The recall was several years ago.  Most have been fixed.  I imagine that you can contact Beretta and see if that one needs to be sent in.   We like our U22.  If it's in good shape, then $200 is a good price.

Cheap locks are the bane of the flintlock world.  I can't speak to the quality of a Traditions lock.  But if it looks cheap, pass on it.   Sadly, a decent TN/KY pattern long rifle will run about $600.  If you aren't picky, you might scan Armslist of Gunbroker for a quality used rifle.  Used blackpowder can usually be had for 70% or less of the new price.  Remember, you can have this shipped directly to your house without any dealers.  The weakest point on a long rifle is the wrist of the stock.  If you have it shipped to you, be certain to ask how it will be packed to protect this area.  If you buy from Dixie, Track of the Wolf, or similar places, they know how to ship properly.   There is a huge difference between percussion and flintlock.  If you can master the flintlock, your shooting with anything else will be better.

Reference to THIS actual HK advertisement from the 2004 SHOT Show. http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2013/05/08/hk-bullets-real-story/

Great!  Another REALLY expensive cartridge and weapon that is ballisticaly similar to the .22WMR.  And it always amazes me how HK manages to produce weapons using the cheapest manufacturing processes available and charge astronomical prices for them.  If it costs HK more than $200 to produce each MP7, I'd be amazed.

Is the hammer pin properly seated?  Take the grips off.  The grips hold the hammer pin in place.  The pin should be flush with both sides of the frame.  Some aftermarket grips don't keep the pin from wandering out one side or the other. If that happens, the pin becomes canted and the gun won't fire.  Or , if the factory grips are cracked, that happens as well.  That's what happened on my first Sig Sauer.   CZs don't have that problem.  Neither do 1911s, Berettas, Rugers, S&W, or even HiPoints.  Most guns have some kind of weird flaw.  For Sig Sauer to have left that one in place for over 30 years seems a bit absurd.

Oh, to have a nice BTR-80!!!  Larger side doors than earlier versions, and with a single powerful diesel instead of the cranky, dual engines and unreliable transmissions of previous versions.   Sadly, for those of us taller than 5'8", we can never sit in the driver's compartment of any BTR and close the hatch.   My ultimate 'want' vehicle is a British Saracen.  Easy maintenance, larger headroom, and most parts are easy to find and inexpensive.  The only bad part is that they don't swim.

Wow, how'd you get her to agree to have to compete for the gun?  My wife just picks it up, handles it a bit, looks at me and says "Mine!  Thank you!"    Of course, that doesn't even count the ammo which she takes to the range with her friends and never even tells me about.  I DID get her to agree not to open sealed cases.  So that limits her to the boxes on the closet shelves.  Still, it's disconcerting to find out that where you thought there was 5-600 rds of .38 on the shelf, there's now only a partial box.  But, that's also why I mostly just keep reloads in the closet!  And she is pretty good about bringing the brass back.

Very few of the parts are interchangeable with the smaller AKs.  Larger bolt, carrier, receiver, etc.  Since importing firearms and parts has become so expensive/difficult, prices are higher.   The real Dragunov is a very different beast altogether.  It shares nothing with the AK platform except a generally similar look.

Given the California police and media's propensity for outright lying, I wonder if these fellows actually were manufacturing or dealing.  Providing assistance to someone assembling a firearm from their own parts is no crime.  Allowing someone to use a drill press or milling machine is also no crime.   Even if they were actually manufacturing firearms, is anyone actually surprised?  It's not rocket science, you know.  Rifles, pistols, shotguns, and machine guns of all varieties have been made under some of the most oppressive gun control in history.  Sure, some of it is very crude.  But there have been some VERY sophisticated guns made under the most oppressive conditions imaginable.   In the US, try to imagine how many folks have basic machine tools suitable for firearms manufacture?  I'd be very surprised if the number isn't easily in the millions.

I have a boatload (figuratively speaking) of USGI 30rd mags.  Most have the original black followers.  I shoot mostly 55gr, and have yet to have a follower-related problem with either 55gr or 62gr ammo.   I also have a collection of 'other' mags including PMAGS, Orlite, C-Prod stainless, British steel, etc. The only mags that have ever given me problems are British aluminum L-85 mags.  They are just flimsy and poorly-made.  The British steel ones are well-made and work perfectly.   Check the feed lips of all metal mags carefully.  USGI mags tend to eventually crack at the back of the feed lips.  That is the part of that type of mag that sees the most stress.  Leaving them loaded is not an issue.  It is usually from extensive use (hundreds of loadings and full-auto fire) that they eventually crack.   Given that the USGI aluminum mags have seen more use than any other type of mags made, I would expect the knowledge-base on those mags to be well-established.  Let's face it, PMAGS and most other plastic mags have only been around a few years.  Who really knows how they will fare long-term and with heavy use?

  I like my Sig Sauer pistol as well.  But nothing made by Sig Sauer is in the same league as the Swiss-made Sig P210.  Even their P210 Legend is noticeably less well-made.

I don't sweat it.  I try to use the C&R whenever possible.  A lot of stores don't really bother to understand the gun laws.  Lets face it, just keeping up with what they have to know to avoid jail is a pain!   But, if a store tells me that they don't accept the C&R, I generally make one attempt to educate them.  Then, I decide whether the deal is really good enough for me to want to give them my business.  At least half the time, I go elsewhere.  There are very few C&R guns that you can't find a better deal from someone willing to take the C&R.