graycrait

Regards to the SR22 - I would want to see if it was lighter/stiffer and easier to tune a bedding job before discounting it totally. 10/22s can be made to be very accurate if the right barrels, chambered correctly with the right trigger and free float with some kind of bedding job. Is it cost effective, I don't really know. Is it fun and interesting? It can be. I fiddled around with several 10/22s and still am, along with other .22s. I'm waiting for this chassis to come to market: Zimmerman Arms | Rezolution | Tactical Rimfire | Tactical 22 | 10-22 Frankly, I'm not interested in ARs, AKs etc. I'm retired Army. What I am looking for is a stiff, light, durable chassis to install accurized aftermarket 10/22 components to come up with the lightest most durable and accurate 10/22 possible within my budget. This Zimmerman may make sense that way. I'm hoping I find someone who buys a SR22 so I can at least hear what it is capable of. Craig in Clarksville

Depending on what you want to do go with pistol in the 300.00+/- range. Best bet are: S&W 22A, Buckmark or Ruger MKIII/II. For pleasure for the $ go SW 22A. For reliability and versatility go Buckmark. For tinkering go Ruger MK series. Single and Double Action .22s are great, especially old S&W 17s, but I would shy away from aluminum cylinder 617s. Ruger Single Six and H&Rs are nice for trapline guns and the like but loading 6 isn't as much fun as having 5-10 10 rd mags loaded and ready to go at the range. For pure fun and some varmint/pest control shooting get a semi auto. If you want to have the best bang for the buck get a Ruger MKII and hand fit an adjustable Marvel trigger, install a Volquartsen sear and gently polish all internal friction points. Anyone with patience can do it. Stay away from Sig Mosquito! Walther P22 is a nice little plinker but is not in the same class as the aforementioned SW22, Ruger MK, and Buckmark. Of course if you have a CZ 75 get a Cadet upper. If you shoot Glocks an Advantage Arms conversion might interest you but they aren't that great to shoot. They work but in my fairly extensive experience with them I would rather shoot a dedicated semi-auto .22. If you have a 1911 or might get one then the Marvel conversions would make sense. Sig makes a quality conversion also. S&W 41, Benellis, Pardinis and the like, although nice shooting pistols the point of diminishing returns is often self-evident unless you are a dedicated disciplined marksman. Craig

I've been down that road quite a number of times. I always come back to the G19. .38/.357 are good calibers for a lot of things. I do a reasonable amount of work on both Glocks and S&W DA revolvers. I hugely admire a nice S&W DA revolver, but for saving your butt a 15+1 G19 is hard to beat in terms of reliability, ease of use & maintenance and it is accurate enough. The G19 is comparably light too without compromising being able to use it effectively weak or strong hand two-hand or one. Glock parts are cheap and plentiful if on the rare occasion you need one. But if you haven't had a good S&W DA revolver get one and get Kuhnhausen's Shop Manual and Jerry Miculek's DVD "Trigger Job." Craig in Clarksville

I've repaired a couple of Bersa .380s and you couldn't give me another. However the Thunder 9and 45 are different pistols altogether. I have a friend who has several hundred handguns and he has a couple of these Bersa Thunders in the calibers mentioned. They are tremendous pistols for the money. I would put them near Glock in reliability after several thousand rounds but don't know how long they will really last. For the casual shooter who wants a good economical self-defense pistol it would be difficult to fault the Bersa Thunder 9 or .45. Craig in Clarksville

I've modified a Glock 17 so that it holds and nearly replicates a 1911 in sight alignment and my modified Glock 19 is probably more comfortable than a Hi-Power, although the sights come on faster and flatter than any pistol I have held. The only stock pistol that comes to mind that comes on line as fast and feels good is the Sig 228, but the bore axis is a bit too high for my liking. Craig in Clarksville

The only one on your list I haven't shot is the S&W. I have owned, shot or worked on the others. The Bersa Thunder 9 works really well if you are on a budget. Find a used one, they should be sub-$300.00. They are hard to find in my area used, that may say something also. However, after all the guns I try and have tried the Glock 9mm is king for me. I have had a small, well not so small, bucket load of them. I do a certain amount of "custom" work on them as well. I would recommend Glock 9mms in this order: 19, 17, 26, 34, 17L. I would also recommend Advantage Arms .22 conversion kits for the the 19. The 17,34 and 17L all use the same frame so the AA kit for the 17 works for any of the three. Why Glock? Pros: They aren't picky about ammo. They are durable, reliable and accurate enough. Aftermarket support/items are extensive. They are simple to completely (I mean completely) disassemble and reassemble. Parts, if you need them, are easy to obtain and are inexpensive. Did I already mention reliable? Cons: the grip (for some) and for someothers is the fact it has no thumb safety. Both of which can be remedied aftermarket. Another con is for many Glock shooters to initially shoot low and left due to a number of factors, i.e., poor grip, lack of practice and lack of dry firing. Craig

I put out an email to my buddies about the CZ452 you purchased at TN Gun Country, then Dave, the store's owner, emailed me back and told me it was sold. I told him, "Good, I hope someone who appreciates a good deal on a good rimfire got it." I was looking at it yesterday morning and said, "What a deal." I just picked up a used LNIB 597 Remington .22WMR a week earlier so my rimfire money was gone when this deal turned up. Glockster157, I do quite a bit of monkeying around with Glocks and rimfires. Drop me a pm some time if you want: harr1502@bellsouth.net Craig in Clarksville

AA conversion kits for Glocks work very well. I have had a couple for a long time and no complaints. Craig in Clarksville

I just acquired a DW Pointman 9mm. The word is that this is a bit better than than the equivalent Kimber and Springfield. I've had a couple of springfields and I like this DW better. The 1911 forums have quite a bit to say about DW 1911s.

I do quite a bit of work on Glocks, mine and other folks'. I cut, stipple grips and do all manners of trigger jobs. I work on other pistols and some rifles too. I have tried all the usual suspects in Glock aftermarket: CCF steel frames, aftermarket triggers, aftermarket slides & barrels and a host of other stuff. Forget 3.5lb triggers. Get a very good stone from Brownells or someone else. One that is fine and has very sharp edges. Learn to stone the stock connector and bird's head on the trigger bar. Not too much but you can take the tool marks out and make it shine nearly like a mirror. Do not change angles unless you have some extra parts. The good thing is stock Glcok parts are cheap, especially at OMB Express. Next stone the striker face where it connnects with the point of the cruciform on the trigger bar. Stone the cruciform point where it connects with the striker, maintaining stock angle. Don't get freaky about needing a jig and all that. Just do it! Stone the stock disconnector where it hits the bird's head at all points. Make it shine but don't change angles. Slightly knock off any burrs you may make, cause you aren't making edges of connector or bird's head knife share. Take a small bladed very sharp knife and shave the trigger safety so it doesn't stick out and press on your trigger finger pressure pad when the trigger is fully depressed. Forget about the trigger stop housings that reduce overtravel or do like I do and but one in all your Glocks. Don't go half way. Shoot the tar out of the thing two-handed either hand and one-handed either hand. Make sure you don't limp wrist. If you can't put a magazine in a paper pie plate weak hand one-handed buy more ammo until you can. If you want a target accurate Glock you can make one with aftermarket parts. However, if you want a superbly reliable combat gun do the above and you will have it. I would add one thing to any Glock to make it shoot a bit better and that is add TR Graham's Match Grade Slide Lock to your Glock. There are sexier and I suppose "cooler" handguns out there, but when it comes to saving your a..... the Glock is king and second to none. I wish it had been American invented, but it wasn't. The fact remains it is the combat handgun to beat. Craig in Clarksville, TN

You may want to look at this book: "Customize the Ruger 10/22 by House & House, 2006, Krause Pubs." rimfirecentral.com has a huge section on 10/22s and just about anything else relating to .22's. Another good source: http://www.gunsmoke.com/guns/1022/index.html Prices range from around 189.00 for a basic carbine to on up to about 360.00 for a 10/22T. Wal Mart carries them and can order them so their price is hard to beat. I have purchased a couple through my local gun dealer. Finding a good used one at a bargain price is tough these days. Incidentally, if you are just plinking and having fun I found through a competitive shooter that Remington "Golden" 36 grain HPs work very good in 10/22s and give decent accuracy. Great thing is that you can buy these in bulk at Wal Mart. I have quite a collection of .22 ammo, including various match ammo, but the Remington Goldens are the ones I reach for now when it is fun time. They also work well in my .22 Glock conversion. I'm working on my 3rd 10/22 and I have a friend who has half a dozen or more in various guises. I have barely scratched the surface on mods. Craig in Clarksville

Last I looked Tennessee Gun Country in Clarksville, TN had a Single Action FNP9. Nice pistol, very nice trigger. I think the Browning Pro is very similar if not the same pistol and TN Gun Country had one of those used.

I had a PF9 for awhile. Pretty good pistol and works. However, it is handful to use weak-hand one-handed trying to get good follow up shots. My idea of a pocket gun is it is the gun of last resort, I'll probably have to use it one-handed weak-hand very fast with multiple hits on target. There are not a lot of guns that work will under those criteria. I traded my PF9 for something else, can't even remember now. The PF9 may work for you but I know of no serious CCW people who carry one. I know plenty of people who carry the P3AT or the P32. If you get the hard chromed version of either the .380 or .32 KelTec you will likely be happy for it. Craig in Clarksville

I've got a .38 Super I am fiddling with, trying to get it to reliably shoot 9mm. It is not simply "drop in 9mm barrel/link/pin/bushing and go to town." The .38 Super mags work for either caliber, but the extractor and ejector don't reliably work with 9mm, great with .38 Super though. I am working on that. It gets rolling sometimes and I think, "now this is fun." However, I'll soon have a stovepipe or FTE and I have the pleasure of practicing MALF drills. Now that I am into it I'm not crazy about the whole 9mm 1911 "thing" although an EMP would be fun. In retrospect I would not do this again, opting instead to save my money for ammo to run through one of my Glock 9mms or simply get a CZ75 Single Action. The 1911 experiment is a chore. It is way more fun to just shoot my stainless steel (CCF) frame Glock 17 or my aftermarket G34.

I have had an AA conversion for my G19 for several years. It works fine. I met one guy on a range a couple of months ago who wanted to test mine out and fired up a brick of ammo through it nearly nonstop. The AA conversion is pretty good, beer can or better accuracy. The only issue is that with the AA and Glock frame the whole thing weighs about 12 oz, making if very light. Using the AA as a training aid is a bit of a stretch. It is very fun to shoot very fast. I wish there were 20 rd mags for it. Unfortunately my G17 AA conversion will not reliably work on my CCF stainless frame. Now that would be something to test out if it would work. I have not sat down to try and cogitate over why this combo won't work reliably. That might be one of those cold rainy day projects.

I went to the range today and got the 9mm barrel to work in the .38 Super. It worked well in fact as long as I didn't use WWB or UMC ammo. I used 6 or 7 types of ammo. I've got about $400.00 in the whole deal with two .38 Super barrels and the 9mm barrel. I had a bunch of recoil springs already from my 1911 .45 projects so switching out recoil springs is about all I did. I may fool around with a new ejector. I am hoping to get this gun into the arthritic hands of one of my shooting buddies whose collection of over a dozen ,45 1911s are sitting idle due to the recoil spring tension being too strong for his hands. The 9mm recoil spring is ideally around 11lbs in the this gun, but I want to try some variable strength springs before settling on a specific weight spring. In any case this thing is easier to rack than your standard .45 1911. I'll probably end up trading it off for another Glock. My CCF stainless steel Glock frame project has come along so well I would like to try one in the G19 size. My other Glock projects are taking precedence over the 1911. One more friendly G21SF grip reduction and I am done working on friends' Glocks for a while. Craig in Clarksville

Eureka! This isn't my first 1911 and might not be my last, but for carry I use a Glock 19. Regardless, I like tinkering a bit, ergo my CCF G17 and my aftermarket G34, as well as fixing & tuning dozens of revolvers and pistols for friends. I received my "value priced" (OK, cheap) 1911 9mm barrel, bushing, link and pin last nite. This was ordered for my .38 Super made by S.A.M. in the Phillipines. I polished the 9mm barrel with a bench driven felt wheel a bit as it was a might dirty or it was simply some brown rust preventative. I'm not sure where my bargain barrel was made but I suspect also the Phillipines. I then used red jewelers rouge followed by some ultra fine polishing compound I have for knife sharpening using a Dremel and felt pad. I had to widen out the link pin hole on the barrel legs, lapping it (them) with a right-sized steel punch covered in valve grinding compound to get a snug but smooth fit. OK, I did spin the link a bit on my DMT round tapered knife sharpener to speed the process up. I polished the lip of this rampless barrel, cleaned it all up and oiled it up. I installed the barrel and using the only .38 Super magazine I had - I cycled some A-Zoom 9mm snap caps. That didn't go too bad so I next loaded the mag up with 9mm Brown Bear steel cased rounds from Russia. Keeping my hand off the safety grip I then cycled a few mags' worth. Then I cycled a few mags worth using a standard grip. No shots fired in the house! I think I may have to tweak the extractor and maybe the ejector, but I think the thing will run. A new mag or two wouldn't hurt either. I'm no expert but getting one of these things to run right is somewhat of a chore, but not that hard. This thing runs in .38 Super well enough, now I need to see how it will do in 9mm. I'm sure manufacturers and custom makers who sell high dollar 9mm 1911s shudder at things like this project, but if it works, and it will, if not right away, then in a few more weeks..... A Phillipino .38 Super is generally relatively inexpensive, then add the 9mm barrel, bushing, link and pin for $60.63 (including shipping) and you have a "value priced" 9mm & .38 Super. I've shot quite a few decent 1911s, Les Baer, Wilson, Nighthawk, custom-made handbuilts, etc., and owned several 1911s before this one. However, for my personal purposes I classify 1911s as range guns only as I do my CCF G17 and my aftermarket G34. The .38 Super is a straight walled cartridge that is .384 fore and aft, and .900 long, while the 9mm is a tapered case . 391 rear to .380 at the front with overall length of .754. 9mm bullet width is .355, while .38 Super is .356. You have a chamber difference, but C.U.P. and overall speed of the bullets are similar. Using the same grain weight bullets and same powder (although powder amount is different) you will typically see about 125fps greater speed in the .38 Super, although with 115 grain JHPs the speed difference flip flops with some powders. However, my 115 grain +P Cor Bon JHPs for 9mm state 1350fps at 466ft/lbs while the .38 Super +P Cor Bon JHP are rated at 1425fps at 519ft/lbs). I'm sure that JSPs in either pistol are low cavitation high penetration rounds. But with modern JHPs at these speeds either caliber likely mushrooms and energy dumps AOK for all intended purposes. I'm interested in recoil comparisons between the calibers that produce like ballistics. Factory 9mm practice ammo is about half of what .38 Super costs. Hopefully range time will come this weekend and if links don't break and the thing extracts and ejects I will be delighted. However, I do expect to have to tweak the ejector and extractor. It will be interesting to see if the thing will work using the same recoil spring, but I would expect that different powders/burn rates and other variables will require some tuning between calibers - maybe not though. One of my old books says that soft cast lead 9mm can be shot in .38 Super barrels but I am not going to try that due to chamber depth differences. "Jumping the gap" doesn't seem to be a really good idea. For those interested in doing a .38 Super to 9mm conversion I heard that RIA will be selling .38 Supers in the US at some time, if they are not doing so right now. I had contacted one custom guy about building a 9mm 1911 and he said approx. $2,400.00. Of course you can buy an STI or other 1911 9mm for somewhere around a grand. I figure I have some time and about $400.00 in the project except for the micarta grips, along with learning something in the process. In several weeks I expect it will shoot as well as most 1911s and it will be a two-caliber pistol. Like I said earlier, I carry a Glock, although my G19 likely looks little like yours. I've been practicing grinding, stippling, smoothing actions, etc., so much so that friends are giving me their NIB Glocks to "enhance" for their own uses. Making a Glock feel and shoot great is so much easier and less costly than a 1911. But 1911 triggers are just so great that piddling around with a 1911 is fun. Craig

After you shoot your G19 awhile let us know what you think about it. I have had several and they are likely one of the most practical defense weapons out there. Me and another fella, owner of a gunshop in Clarksville, TN were pondering if I really needed to fill the butt void with Acraglas to grind the hump down to get a better grip. I cut off the finger grooves on a 3rd Generation, cut up and radiused up under the trigger guard where your shooting hand second finger rests (left and right side), grooved out that area where your shooting finger lies along the frame to included taking material off in the trigger guard and up under the slide support part of the frame where your shooting finger slides off into the trigger guard, then stippled (with wood burning pen) the thing 360 around the grip, under the trigger guard and along the frame where your support thumbs extend. All this allows a firm comfortable grip, either hand, and brings the sights down in a more "natural" point - lowering the front sight about 10-15 degrees - more 1911-like. That also includes working on the trigger bar's contact points, safety plunger, striker and smoothing up the stock connector. The first time I did this I was little concerned if maybe I shouldn't just adapt myself to the gun. Now I've done a couple more, including a NIB 21SF and a NIB G19 a fella handed to me. So now I say to those folks who don't like the fit and feel of a Glock or complain that the Glock "just doesn't point "right" just give that Glock what I call a Garage Grind and Burn and make that tool fit you as opposed to the other way around. Additionally you can do some pretty remarkable things with the Glock trigger while still leaving it reliable. You can go aftermaket on the trigger but you don't need to. 20 - 30 minutes with a good stone and some common sense will get the trigger pretty nice. I even have a stainless steel Glock .22 now. Used a CCF Raceframe with a Advantage Arms .22 conversion. You can do quite a bit with the Glock. Parts are plentiful and pretty cheap. Except for tinkering I am putting up the Glock tools for awhile and concentrating on a .38 Super 1911 I picked up. Craig in Clarksville

I owned that 9mm at Tn Gun Country. It is a really sound revolver. I was offered $625.00 for that set-up on-line, but I don't buy or sell on-line. Why did I trade it? I wanted another Glock and didn't want to spend more money getting one. I've buried enough money on a CCF steel frame Glock project. Craig in Clarksville

By the nature of the question I too vote: Go with the Lorcin!

Before you trade your G17 for a Kel Tec PF9, shoot a PF9. That is not a gun that is easy to use one handed, weak hand or any single hand in a panic situation. Plenty of snap in that pistol. I "had" one. But they are small and sort of fun, about like the Titanium .357 J-magnum sized snubbie I "had." I sort of like the Kahr's, accurate and easy to shoot either hand in a panic accurately and with followup shots. I personally don't qualify the Kahr as Glock reliable, but that is my own experience with them. Glock 9mms, Ruger & S 'n W steel snubbies are reliable.

If your wife is finicky about some things like mine is you better get the Bersa .380. A good reliable pistol for the money. Fits most hands and easy to operate. I have had two in the past. In fact I personally would rather depend on the Bersa over the Walther. If you take the Bersa apart it, like the Walther, has a seemingly bucket full of springs. However, the design works and proves reliable with decent ammo. If you can find a used Bersa it should be relatively inexpensive, I think new they are in the $230-250 range. Get the Bersa because if she doesn't like it you don't feel bad selling or trading it. I got my wife a Glock 26, put some Tru Glo TFO night sights on it, but she finds the grip size and trigger reach not quite right. Lesson learned: if you are buying your wife a gun, take her with you. Now she doesn't want to get rid of it because I got it for her, yet she doesn't want to shoot it.

Nope, Armscor is making a new Firestorm 1911 and I had my hands on one, stamped Philipines on the frame, NIB. The slide is the same sans sight as the STI Spartan. Gunblast may do a review on it.

I read this also. It got me to thinking that one of these new pretty good looking Firestorm (Armscorp) 1911's could be had at a price where making your own 9mm conversion topend would be educational and fun.

Ruger Speed Six in 9mm with 30 moonclips, moonsetter and demooner; S&W K22 pre-17 5-screw, S&W 19-2 4" that was truly the slickest shooting trigger job I have ever done; CZ 85 Combat.