Weapons - What you have (NOT a political discussion)

[Sierra1]

Yeah, everybody loves the 9mm. It's not the panacea that everybody like to think it is. I'm still a fan of the short, fat, and slow .45acp. (I have the Ruger LC carbine in both the 5.7 and .45cp. Have become two of my favs) .45s are naturally subsonic and very effective. The 5.7 is effective in a completely different way. And has 23/25 round mags. Try one out, you'll become a believer.

 

[Mak10]

My experience with .22 rounds and shooting pigeons is that a .22lr will go right through the pigeon. A .22cb (low velocity short) will not. The cb is better at knockdown. Maybe because all the energy stops inside the pigeon.

Not a scientific study, just my real life experience.

 

[EricV]

Yeah, everybody loves the 9mm. It's not the panacea that everybody like to think it is. I'm still a fan of the short, fat, and slow .45acp. (I have the Ruger LC carbine in both the 5.7 and .45cp. Have become two of my favs) .45s are naturally subsonic and very effective. The 5.7 is effective in a completely different way. And has 23/25 round mags. Try one out, you'll become a believer.

These days my carry piece is a Springfield XD-S .45. All those years in the Marines with my daily carry being a 1911A1 still leaves me liking the .45. I’ve lost track of how many .45 variants I’ve owned over the years. I do miss the Colt Officer’s Model .45 in stainless steel. Should have kept that one.

 

[Sierra1]

. . . . Maybe because all the energy stops inside the pigeon. . . .

Exactly. All rounds have potential energy. Which turns into kinetic energy. When the bullet stays in the "target" it dumps all of its energy into the target. If it passes through the target, it still has remaining energy. Only a percentage of the total energy was inflicted onto the target. This is a big reason that on paper, 9mm has more energy than a .45, but the .45 is more effective. The 9mm is known for going through a target and only using a fraction of its potential energy. But the .45 remains in the target, using 100% of its energy.

It's the same with the .22short. It starts with less energy but uses 100% of it. The LR has more energy but uses less. I use my 40 yr old Marlin .22lr on my squirrels. But I make sure of my backdrop since 95% of the shots go through the squirrel(s). I like using the Earth as the backdrop and usually make sure it's a downward shot.

 

[Sierra1]

These days my carry piece is a Springfield XD-S .45. . . .

My R6 boy has one of the original XD .45 full sized. He got his when he turned 21, back when they were cheap. I've always been a fan of .45acp. Big, slow rock.

My first EDC was the Shield PC in .40. I wanted the .45 but they hadn't made it yet, and I had a bunch of .40 since that's what we carried before we went to .45. My wife wanted a pistol but didn't like the recoil. She took her permit class with my Browning Hi-Power and passed, but still complained of the recoil. So, when they came out with the Shield PC EZ. I got one for her in .380. She loved it and named it Beth. (after Beth Dutton from Yellowstone)

I had a Sig 229 in .357 and didn't much care for it or have much ammo. So, I sold it and got my wife the 5.7 LC carbine. Put a Vortex Sparc optic on it and she loves it. She has a 3/4" group at 25 yds because there is ZERO recoil and the red dot work very good. Thankfully she has not named it yet.

 

[Matt51F1]

Recoil of a 9mm for me isn’t an issue as I reload.
Most powders work with 3.5/3.6 grains of powder to cycle my M9A3 but I’ve also tuned it a little bit.

I’m looking to purchase an STI target master that’s had a heap of work done to it. I’d be surprised if 2.5 grains didn’t cycle it!

 

[EricV]

I carried a West German made Sig 226 for a long time. Best 9mm I ever owned, though the Browning Hi Power was close second. I bought my Dad a Beretta 92S around 1983, (the forerunning to the M9 that was adopted in the mid ’80’s). Mag release at the toe of the grip. Dad liked it a lot, but it just never fit my hand well. The Sig was just ‘there’ when I drew it, the 92S always required an adjustment to be on target, for me. The Sig would eat anything. I hand loaded for decades and even other 9mm mags would work in the Sig w/o jams. At the range one day I used Ruger, S&W, Browning and even the Beretta 92S mags in the Sig w/o issue. I did have to hold the 92S mag up in the mag well since it wouldn’t latch due to the toe mag release location, but it still fired the full mag w/o a hitch. It hurt a bit to sell that Sig, but bills needed to be paid and that was a lean time.

The pic earlier of the BM-59 made me remember when I was looking for a MBR and chose between the BM-59 and a FN FAL. I went with the FAL since I found a carbine/folding stock version at a really good price. Great rifle, except for the fired brass being a pain to reload. Same as the HK-91 brass. Loved the FAL’s ease of adjusting the gas piston for different loads.

 

[Sierra1]

As exotic as I've ever had are the (2) 9mm Brownings and the (1) .40 cal. (got all three and a safe for $200) When my wife took her class with the Browning, I told her not to let anybody leave her site if they looked at it. She got home after the class and wanted to know why everybody wanted to look at it. She said it look like all the other guns and couldn't figure out the big deal. Smith, Ruger and Colt are good enough for me. I've always hear nothing but the best about the FN FAL, but as close as I'm gonna get is my M1a. Once again, good enough for me.

 

[EricV]

When I was wrenching on Miatae for money I had a customer trade me a match grade M1a, with about 1k rounds of handloads and 1k of new brass, plus case, mags, etc. A very nice rifle. He had some shoulder issues and couldn’t deal with the recoil of the .308 any more. I did a bunch of service and custom work for him in trade for that. Never did shoot the rifle and eventually sold it for a bit more than I had bartered for it. I shot one of the Marine spec M1a rifles when I was on active duty. Nice rifles. Felt heavy at the time as a kid humping a M16A1… until I got stuck with the Pig, (M60), for a week!

 

[Sierra1]

I got mine for $20. My FJR son, who got his for $20 also, and I are the only ones that have shot them. My "gun benefactor" wanted me to sight them and a M1-D (Garand) in. He eventually decided to get rid of them due to his age and their recoil. I switched my M1a's completely scratch less walnut stock out for a ProMag Archangel synthetic stock with an adjustable shoulder and cheek pad. The walnut stock is nice and snug in the safe. Made it a better shooter too. It is a heavy turd, but it holds 20rd of .308 and absorbs the recoil fairly well.

The M1-D came with the original scope and leather stock bandolier. The scope is perfect elevation wise, but the windage is off by about 6moa to the left. "I" know where to put the crosshairs, but nobody else does. And, like the M1as, this cost me a whopping $20 too.

 

[thughes317]

I got mine for $20. My FJR son, who got his for $20 also, and I are the only ones that have shot them. My "gun benefactor" wanted me to sight them and a M1-D (Garand) in. He eventually decided to get rid of them due to his age and their recoil. I switched my M1a's completely scratch less walnut stock out for a ProMag Archangel synthetic stock with an adjustable shoulder and cheek pad. The walnut stock is nice and snug in the safe. Made it a better shooter too. It is a heavy turd, but it holds 20rd of .308 and absorbs the recoil fairly well.

The M1-D came with the original scope and leather stock bandolier. The scope is perfect elevation wise, but the windage is off by about 6moa to the left. "I" know where to put the crosshairs, but nobody else does. And, like the M1as, this cost me a whopping $20 too.

You suck.

 

[Sierra1]

You suck.

We were extremely fortunate. My FJR kid was gifted his knife/sword collection. Most, if not all, of them were replicas. But one was an original Bolo knife that our benefactor carried while he was in the service. He was a CWO4 US Army and took a liking to us. He also had a semi auto B.A.R. We did not get to buy that.

 

[EricV]

Korean war vintage trivia - the web belt for a BAR gunner had a steel cup horizontal to the belt that the gunner would put the rifle butt in for auto fire on the move. Dad brought one home.

 

[Matt51F1]

The ONLY place I get to see an M1 Garand is in a museum

 

[EricV]

Good shooters. M1 thumb is over stated.

 

[Mak10]

 

[thughes317]

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