The Handgun Thread
- Thread starter SirTimothy
- Start date
weambulance said:
Yeah I know, still a cool idea though.
I don't ever buy anything Smith and Wesson, they can go straight to hell as far as I'm concerned. My father and grandfather hold a grudge against them for their acceptance of gun control back in 2000 and I plan on continuing the tradition. You might have some other information concerning that event (I was fairly young at the time), but from what I understand they compromised with the feds to push gun control and stay in business themselves.
I don't have much of an opinion on Taurus other than they have a lifetime warranty (perhaps they need it? don't know) and that the 608 is a big ass gun that wouldn't get used a whole lot, definitely wouldn't bother carrying it. It's job would be to stay loaded 24/7 and to go bang when I pull the trigger.
I did not know about the Encore and that's definitely something I'll look into.
Ah, yes.
So the short version is in 2000 S&W was owned by Tompkins, a UK-based multinational. After they made that deal with Clinton, there was massive backlash and they were boycotted by loads of people which resulted in S&W being sold cheap to a new company that is not made up of gun-hating cockholsters. (Just looked it up, there are details on wikipedia.) So the people who made the 2000 deal have nothing to do with S&W now. But lots of people don't know that, and they just remember that S&W screwed American gun owners.
Thompson/Center is a subsidiary of S&W, as it happens.
Along similar lines, lots of people still avoid Ruger products because Bill Ruger sold out gun owners by supporting magazine capacity limits in the 90s (actually 1989, looked it up). Well, Bill Ruger's been dead for over a decade and in the last 5-6 years Ruger has really jumped on board with producing high quality, affordable weapons that old Bill would've never been okay with.
Gun people have long memories but sometimes the details just get lost in time. I'm all for voting with my wallet, but when the assholes who actually sold me out are out of the picture, it doesn't make much sense to me to keep punishing a good pro-RKBA company forever.
As to Taurus maybe they've gotten better, because supposedly in the last couple years they've been making a real push to improve their quality control, but they have a terrible reputation for QA/QC and customer service. Their guns are in the "buy if you cannot afford anything better and really need protection" category as far as I'm concerned, and I'd expect even a new and improved Taurus to start failing after a few thousand rounds. On the other hand, I know S&W (and Ruger) wheelguns are good.
Laner said:I do not own any handguns as I am in Canada. Plenty of rifles and two shotguns though.
Lately there have been more bear attacks getting closer and closer to home. A couple days ago some guys had to club a sow over the head a couple dozen time before she dropped a kid. Kid is still pretty critical.
Anyways, I have always like the little S&W .357. But this one has been catching my eye:
Is there an advantage of .410 over .357?
I envy you Americans, it must be nice to have the right to carry protection.
The governor model is a bit of a fad IMO. All chamber and no barrel. They would beat out the .357 in snake country except you can just use these in your .357 anyway.
If you live where you can carry, then it's not unreasonable to carry a full powered 10mm and a pocket .357 loaded with snake shot. I certainly would.
Relevant given the last thing I wrote in this thread, S&W gives $500k to help MA gun owners who are getting fucked by the state government:
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In other news, I had another bear encounter at my cabin last weekend. This time with a sow and three cubs, and I was out in the open. I was walking back toward the cabin from my target stand after picking up my brass from shooting the day before, looked up and the sow was about 8 feet away. These bears move like ghosts, I didn't hear a thing walking up on me. So I drew my gun, backed off slowly about 15 feet, and just let her decide what to do. Fortunately she went back the way she came and took the cubs with her right when I was about to start making noises.
I fired a shot into a tree to scare her off a few minutes later, after getting my shotgun, but she just looked at me like "what do you want, asshole?" and kept doing what she was doing, rummaging around for berries I guess.
If this keeps up I expect to have to shoot a bear in defense within a year. I just don't make much noise when I'm there alone, so nothing tells the bears to stay away. I'll walk around a corner and trip over a damn bear or something before long.
I normally carry my Glock 19 down there, and while I'm sure dumping ten hot 9mm hollowpoints into a black bear would do the job, I'd be a lot happier with something more powerful. I'm going to keep my eyes open on gunbroker and either buy a Glock 20 Gen 4 (10mm), or if I find a good deal a used S&W 629 (44 Mag).
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In other news, I had another bear encounter at my cabin last weekend. This time with a sow and three cubs, and I was out in the open. I was walking back toward the cabin from my target stand after picking up my brass from shooting the day before, looked up and the sow was about 8 feet away. These bears move like ghosts, I didn't hear a thing walking up on me. So I drew my gun, backed off slowly about 15 feet, and just let her decide what to do. Fortunately she went back the way she came and took the cubs with her right when I was about to start making noises.
I fired a shot into a tree to scare her off a few minutes later, after getting my shotgun, but she just looked at me like "what do you want, asshole?" and kept doing what she was doing, rummaging around for berries I guess.
If this keeps up I expect to have to shoot a bear in defense within a year. I just don't make much noise when I'm there alone, so nothing tells the bears to stay away. I'll walk around a corner and trip over a damn bear or something before long.
I normally carry my Glock 19 down there, and while I'm sure dumping ten hot 9mm hollowpoints into a black bear would do the job, I'd be a lot happier with something more powerful. I'm going to keep my eyes open on gunbroker and either buy a Glock 20 Gen 4 (10mm), or if I find a good deal a used S&W 629 (44 Mag).
I'd love to be able to use a 10mm at the range but although you can get the gun easily enough down here, the ammo/ammo components are a different story.
Can you just ship stuff in from an overseas source, or are there legal barriers? I'm really asking about components like brass and bullets here, since I assume importing ammo is a big hassle.
There are many people that test handgun ammunition on YouTube, but in what has quickly become the definitive source Lucky Gunner has updated their test results for defensive handgun ammo to now include 146 different types. Many of the new loads tested are the extremely popular loads designed and marketed toward Law Enforcement use (but still legal for civilians to use). The entire test bank is a long, very detailed, and worthwhile read for both beginners and the experienced. As always thoroughly test the ammo of choice in your particular application before going live.
Of special note, their methodology is to use compact pistols to give an accurate representation of performance you could see "on the street".
My ammo choices for all calibers remain:
1. HST
2. Ranger T
3. Everything else
Lucky Gunner SD ammo test
Original test summary which includes some background for the standards used.
Update test summary.
Of special note, their methodology is to use compact pistols to give an accurate representation of performance you could see "on the street".
My ammo choices for all calibers remain:
1. HST
2. Ranger T
3. Everything else
Lucky Gunner SD ammo test
Original test summary which includes some background for the standards used.
Update test summary.
John Michael Kane
Crow
Easily the best place I've found on the web for ammo is www.sgammo.com and also http://www.copesdistributing.com/. You can also check out these price search engines:
https://www.wikiarms.com/
http://www.gunbot.net/
http://ammoseek.com/
https://www.wikiarms.com/
http://www.gunbot.net/
http://ammoseek.com/
Hoser
Kingfisher
My go-to source for wholesale prices (I used to have my FFL and know what such prices look like) for 15 years has been CDNN in texas. Amazing prices (mostly), flat-rate shipping (comes in really handy for cases of ammo), and excellent, engaged sales staff.
From what I can tell, they operate on a Dollar Store model: buy up huge lots from others going out of business or liquidating excess stock, then resell at below market prices (hence, their selection of goods offered is always changing). Only once or twice have I seen something higher priced than I could find elsewhere.
cdnnsports.com
From what I can tell, they operate on a Dollar Store model: buy up huge lots from others going out of business or liquidating excess stock, then resell at below market prices (hence, their selection of goods offered is always changing). Only once or twice have I seen something higher priced than I could find elsewhere.
cdnnsports.com
John Michael Kane
Crow
Cdnnsports is solid. I've bought from them before. No issues.
Hoser
Kingfisher
A year ago, when the sporting goods stores' shelves were bereft of 22lr, and even all of the Big Name websites were sold out of everything but blanks, CDNN had plenty, and was selling it for less than anywhere else I could think to look, including Walmart (who was also sold out both locally and online). Not crap rounds, either, but Remington hollow-points. Bonus: no sales tax. Love those guys.
Cattle Rustler said:
You have to be to buy that gun. It has capacity and it's pretty damn neat but that price tag and ammo :exclamation:
