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Good stuff in here.

'Zilla, if I could, I would like to offer a 5th rule:

Alcohol and firearms are NEVER to be mixed.

True story: once upon a time, my brother shared an apartment with a couple of other guys. One of his roommates was, to put it mildly, a complete fooking moron. One night, while drunk off his ass, that roommate was twirling his .22 revolver old-west-style. (You can see where this is going, right?) Of course, the gun went off. The bullet went through the wall of their apartment, across the driveway, and into the wall of the neighbor's apartment. Luckily, the room where the bullet went into was vacant at the time.

'Zilla said: Ooooooh, that would be a good retirement job!!
I have a friend who is a part owner of a shooting range / gun store. One of his partners is a former LEO. Maybe a gig like that could be in your future.

 
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I have 2 Kimbers and love them both dearly.
Neither are "Hood Rat Chrome" though.
Sheesh...A "Hard Chromed" 1911 is not "Hood Rat Chrome." Hard Chrome is a hard finish, that's usually more of a mat-silver than shiny. I guess maybe one could be shined up, but never tried. Two of my competition guns are hard chromed.

I think you're thinking of a "Nickel plated sissy pistol." Haha...

 
Wish I could find a photo of my Kimber 45. (It was stainless steel, not chrome)

I had a "red dot" 1x sight mounted on it and used it to compete locally in Falling Plate. Never won but got 3rd place once.

I always thought since it had a trigger safety, the grip safety was unneeded. I guess they left it on there because, you know, it's a 1911 clone. I'd like to look at the "smaller" versions they make now.

I used to also own a Colt Government .380 (nickel finish) ...wish I never sold that one.......

 
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Hard chrome will never be "show chrome". I work for a hydraulic cylinder repair company, think large mobile crane stuff, and we do chrome plating in house of the hard chrome variety. One of the big differences is what most of us think of as chrome plating, think cruiser style bike, is a multi-layer process. The raw metal is first polished then copper plated to fill in any voids and give a smooth surface. Next a nickel plating is applied to get the bright silver coloring. This is then polished to a high sheen and finally the actual chrome plating is applied. Hard chrome is actually clear and is nothing more than a protective buildup a few thousandths of an inch thick tha protects the surface and helps promote lubrication.

 
Wish I could find a photo of my Kimber 45. .......
Well here it is, forgot it was on the cover of my knife catalog:
IMG_3080.jpg


I did make some nice grips for it out of Cocobolo, which I sold separately when I sold the gun. I took a mold of my hand out of clay, then sculpted the grips from that pattern.

I do still have the Damascus Hunter also pictured....(and it's still for sale)

 
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Man, look at that sight!! Holy shit!! Lol
You should have seen the goofy assed holster that held it all. ;) Not a concealable weapon for sure. But...I could put down six plates under 2 seconds with it using full factory loads.

What I liked about the site was how fast it worked compared to laser sights now, which don't work so well in well lit areas.

 
Good stuff in here.

'Zilla, if I could, I would like to offer a 5th rule:

Alcohol and firearms are NEVER to be mixed.

True story: once upon a time, my brother shared an apartment with a couple of other guys. One of his roommates was, to put it mildly, a complete fooking moron. One night, while drunk off his ass, that roommate was twirling his .22 revolver old-west-style. (You can see where this is going, right?) Of course, the gun went off. The bullet went through the wall of their apartment, across the driveway, and into the wall of the neighbor's apartment. Luckily, the room where the bullet went into was vacant at the time.

'Zilla said: Ooooooh, that would be a good retirement job!!
I have a friend who is a part owner of a shooting range / gun store. One of his partners is a former LEO. Maybe a gig like that could be in your future.
My neighbor and I used to deer hunt together every year. One year he invited another friend along (whom I didn't know). The guy wasn't interested in hunting; wanting to stay up late drinking and playing cards. When we were trying to get out the door at 4am he was [insert your own description of a whining sos].

Some months later, we attended his funeral. He was drinking while cleaning a .22 pistol and failed to treat the gun like it was loaded (2 rules broken). The .22 LR bullet went straight through his heart and he was DRT.

 
I have 2 Kimbers and love them both dearly.

Neither are "Hood Rat Chrome" though.
Sheesh...A "Hard Chromed" 1911 is not "Hood Rat Chrome." Hard Chrome is a hard finish, that's usually more of a mat-silver than shiny. I guess maybe one could be shined up, but never tried. Two of my competition guns are hard chromed.

I think you're thinking of a "Nickel plated sissy pistol." Haha...
Whew. I was starting to wonder about you. Now I can rest easy that you're just normal nuts and not "see the shiny silver thing in my hand in the dark" nuts.

 
Man, look at that sight!! Holy shit!! Lol
You should have seen the goofy assed holster that held it all. ;) Not a concealable weapon for sure. But...I could put down six plates under 2 seconds with it using full factory loads.

What I liked about the site was how fast it worked compared to laser sights now, which don't work so well in well lit areas.
With the widespread availability of holographic red dot sites now, Laser sights are becoming a thing of the past. Crimson Trace and some others are still moving along, but as you pointed out, Lasers have a limited use spectrum. My department prohibits lasers on firearms, mostly because of the red lights that interfere with most of the stuff we do. They also lead to bad sighting habits, like looking at the target, instead of the sights. Our Tasers are Laser equipped, but those are a different type of tool.

The red dot sights that are out now are small and fast. Beyond competition sights, someone, I don't remember who, is putting a red dot on the back of a standard Glock and some departments are allowing people to carry them. We have two at our range right now for T&E. Almost all of our rifles have either an AimPoint, or a EoTech. They're fast and accurate. I love my red dot sights. Let's see if we get them on pistols...

 
Most folks tell me "you can't go wrong with a Glock", but ultimately it will be up to my son to pick one out...likely with not having fired it yet.
Very true and easy to modify. Current Glock stable:

G23 - 40SW & G27 - 40SW & G35 - 40SW

G20 - 10mm & G29 - 10mm

G19 - 9mm & G34 - 9mm & G43 -9mm

G21 - 45 ACP

With drop-in conversion barrels to add 357 sig

For drop dead reliability, I carry the Glocks 90% of the time.

 
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I had an Aimpoint on my 12 gauge Mossberg Defender. I liked the concept so much it was the reason I got one for my .45 pistol. It was bulky, but very quick.

My question on Glocks is ...I thought they all were double action only pistols. Not that you can't shoot them

well, I just find single action trigger pulls easier.

I know many police departments use double action only guns, just not sure how that translates to a gun a civilian is picking for concealed carry...

 
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I had an Aimpoint on my 12 gauge Mossberg Defender. I liked the concept so much it was the reason I got one for my .45 pistol. It was bulky, but very quick.
My question on Glocks is ...I thought they all were double action only pistols. Not that you can't shoot them

well, I just find single action trigger pulls easier.

I know many police departments use double action only guns, just not sure how that translates to a gun a civilian is picking for concealed carry...
Glocks are neither single action nor double action only. They are striker fired where the striker is partially cocked. The trigger pull completes the cocking and then fires. The trigger pull is very long, though you can, with practice, learn to release the trigger part way between shots to reduce the distance the trigger has to move for each shot after the first. The pull is not heavy like a double action revolver.

That said, a Glock's trigger is not designed to maximize accuracy. You will never get the crisp feel of a well made single action trigger.

A concealed carry gun is likely to be small and light and, as Zilla said, mostly used at very close range. The trigger is not going to make a lot of difference in a close encounter as long as you practice and know what to expect when you pull that trigger. A target gun is a different story. For that you want the trigger to be clean and crisp so that the gun moves as little as possible as you squeeze.

Like motorcycles, there is no gun that is best for all situations and applications. You need more than one.

 
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Geezer is absolutely correct about the striker fired action. However, the only Glock trigger I ever found to be cumbersome was the "New York" trigger that is like 12lbs. That trigger sucks. This department had those on all the Glock when I first came here in 2002. They were awful. We got a new boss, and he changed that to allow triggers that are "not less than 3lbs" and allowed us to carry personally owned weapons, because he was a 1911 guy and hated the Glocks.

By G22 has a Brownell's 3lb drop in trigger bar. It was touted as their "competition" trigger for a while, but I don't think that's the case now. It's not bad at all. Not 1911, but I don't expect it to be. The standard Glock trigger is a 5lb pull, and honestly, their reset is the standard all other striker fired pistols get held to.

As Geezer said, the first pull seems long, but that's mostly just taking up slack. From resistance to BANG, isn't far. The reset is when the trigger is only released to the "click" and pulled again. It takes practice, but learning to use reset, instead of fully releasing and slapping the trigger makes it smoother. S&W and Springfield XD both initially had problems getting triggers that had a good-feeling, short reset like Glock's.

Don't forget that Glock has a huge following in USPSA, so there are lots of people that do trigger jobs. Some smoothing and parts swapping does wonders. My little concealed carry G27 has the standard Glock 5lb trigger, and it fits that little gun well. I wouldn't want it lighter, because of all the fiddling around I do with it, when moving it from place to place all the time.

 
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As career law enforcement, and having served as a firearms instructor for the academy for years, I have yet to see any stock gun approach the reliability of Glock except for Sig. Big, heavy, metal sigs. You can get that kind of reliability out of a 1911, but its not going to be a stock gun, and its going to require more attention (I had a Springfield 1911, sold it, and I miss it to this day). Most modern guns, in competent hands, will do fine for self defense. I guess Im saying that, while all mainstream handguns may not be ready for prime time (police) use, modern manufacturing techniques have led to less quality stratification than we saw decades ago. There are still anomalies. While I prefer a Glock 43 over other small guns, the LCP/LCR/Shield are good guns. As noted above, .380 just doesnt have enough energy to overcome any problem, be it a dirty gun, user error, etc. 9mm and up are fine.

The number one thing I tell folks, regarding firearms, is that the baby jesus is not going to protect a firearm you leave unsecured in your vehicle. The armrest, console, and the ever-popular under the seat hiding place ensure that any smash and grab thief will have your gun in seconds. Glovebox or armrest locks? Adds zero protection. Countless cars get rolled by criminals carrying nothing more than a long screwdriver or pry bar. Smash, sweep glovebox, armrest, door pockets, and under the seats, move to the next car. Quality steel lockboxes, including a coated cable lock, are available starting in the $20-30 range. Easily placed, easily removable. May just keep someone you care about from returning to their vehicle and being faced with their own gun. /rant off. :)

 
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On that note, someone just pulled some big "study" noting vehicles thefts and vehicles getting broken into. Using some big venues, like NFL games etc, they pulled stats from auto burglaries. About 3 to 1, cars and trucks with gun and hunting stickers were getting hammered much more than cars without. Problem is, a lot of those vehicles actually had guns in them. Hence, there are no gun decals on any of my vehicles. I also don't leave my gun in my vehicle. My pistol might as well be at home, if I'm going to leave it in the parking lot.

 
If you are carrying concealed, there is one factor that rises to the top of most peoples' list - RELIABILITY.

The next factor is ACCURACY.

As most self defense shooting occur inside 10 feet, accuracy required is COM and a tap up top.

@HotRodZilla - He's spot on: With some basic Dremel and polishing skills and $10 3.5 lbs trigger connector, you can accurize a Glock. Training to use Glock's short trigger reset also allows quicker followup shot onto target.

@Bill Lumberg - Gun in Comp-Tac/Krounds/Blade-Tech IWB/pancake holster always outside of the house (whenever possible)

Key is to have a firearm you shoot well on your person most times.
chickawow.gif


 
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On that note, someone just pulled some big "study" noting vehicles thefts and vehicles getting broken into. Using some big venues, like NFL games etc, they pulled stats from auto burglaries. About 3 to 1, cars and trucks with gun and hunting stickers were getting hammered much more than cars without. Problem is, a lot of those vehicles actually had guns in them. Hence, there are no gun decals on any of my vehicles. I also don't leave my gun in my vehicle. My pistol might as well be at home, if I'm going to leave it in the parking lot.
Here in rural Washington, there are lots of sportsmen that frequent our area. Hard to believe all the things they put on their rigs. I don't put any stickers or any other advertising on my truck to ID me as a hunter, Open invite to look for guns.

 
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