This. I have a 1 year old running around the house and getting into everything. I have a small lock box with a key pad under my side of the bed. All I have to do is reach down and press the buttons.
Gun Enthusiasts: Please advise
- Thread starter madcityCY
- Start date
One thing worth mentioning is that Iowa law requires guns to be locked / inaccessible from children.
A lot of things to consider.
For home defense with little time to react - Revolver with a couple speed loaders ready to go. Leaving a magazine loaded (pistol or shotgun) all the time will cause the spring to relax and loose some of it ability to generate force. As you get down to the bottom of the magazine you run a higher risk of jamming. Keep it loaded in a biometric safe bolted down somewhere in your bedroom so you can get to it quickly if needed but children or other people will not have access.
Home defense with time to react. Shotgun. Sound of cambering a round will scare away most people. Point and shoot type weapon so more likely to hit with it while under duress.
One thing that has not been mentioned is what happens to the stray rounds. If you miss your target with a shotgun the round will not go through the wall of your house and accidentally hit someone walking down the street or sitting/sleeping in your neighbor's house.
As far as which model to chose. Go with the one that feels the most comfortable to the user. Go someplace where a professional will help you fit the weapon to the shooter and let you test fire multiple weapons.
Remember, something that is comfortable for you to shoot will most likely not be a good fit for your spouse.
You are looking for a weapon that you can easily control and rapidly put multiple rounds downrange and on target. The caliber of the round is not as important as how many rounds you can hit with. In a home or self defense situation you are not going to be relying on ONE round to stop the attacker. You are more than likely going to unload on the person. Multiple hits from any caliber weapon will get the job done.
Which ever weapon you chose, practice shooting it. Marksmanship is a skill that needs to be practiced regularly if you want to be able to hit something when you need to.
For home defense with little time to react - Revolver with a couple speed loaders ready to go. Leaving a magazine loaded (pistol or shotgun) all the time will cause the spring to relax and loose some of it ability to generate force. As you get down to the bottom of the magazine you run a higher risk of jamming. Keep it loaded in a biometric safe bolted down somewhere in your bedroom so you can get to it quickly if needed but children or other people will not have access.
Home defense with time to react. Shotgun. Sound of cambering a round will scare away most people. Point and shoot type weapon so more likely to hit with it while under duress.
One thing that has not been mentioned is what happens to the stray rounds. If you miss your target with a shotgun the round will not go through the wall of your house and accidentally hit someone walking down the street or sitting/sleeping in your neighbor's house.
As far as which model to chose. Go with the one that feels the most comfortable to the user. Go someplace where a professional will help you fit the weapon to the shooter and let you test fire multiple weapons.
Remember, something that is comfortable for you to shoot will most likely not be a good fit for your spouse.
You are looking for a weapon that you can easily control and rapidly put multiple rounds downrange and on target. The caliber of the round is not as important as how many rounds you can hit with. In a home or self defense situation you are not going to be relying on ONE round to stop the attacker. You are more than likely going to unload on the person. Multiple hits from any caliber weapon will get the job done.
Which ever weapon you chose, practice shooting it. Marksmanship is a skill that needs to be practiced regularly if you want to be able to hit something when you need to.
This plus a laser sight makes a great bed stand gun that will fit the little lady's hand, my wife is of small stature and can shoot a .38 with no problem.
I shoot a Ruger .357 security six revolver with a 4" barrel. I love the gun, but it's to much recoil for my wife to shoot. With 180 grain security rounds in it I have to aim about 6" low at 20 yards, kicks like a mule.
Erroneous. Spring life is dictated by number of cycles, not duration of applied force.
Just to update everyone - as I'm sure you're all very interested in what I decided. (semi-
)
I went to Deerfield, WI last night with the young lady to a mom n pop dealer and indoor range. They talked us into test firing a (barely) used glock 19 previously owned by a cop. She liked it, wasn't intimidated by it, and showed some improvement in comfort and confidence between her first shot (ever) and her last - probably about 20+ trigger pulls. So, I bought it. I think she's pretty excited about it.
Overall, he experience was pretty good. She was a bit overwhelmed by all the talk, but when we got into the range, she was pretty excited about shooting. Said she "could see herself doing this for fun."
Success! Thanks to all who provided some great things for me to think about. In a couple intense days of talk and research, I think I have a decent, (yet basic) understanding of handguns. She/ We will be enrolling ourselves at the range for professional instruction.
I went to Deerfield, WI last night with the young lady to a mom n pop dealer and indoor range. They talked us into test firing a (barely) used glock 19 previously owned by a cop. She liked it, wasn't intimidated by it, and showed some improvement in comfort and confidence between her first shot (ever) and her last - probably about 20+ trigger pulls. So, I bought it. I think she's pretty excited about it.
Overall, he experience was pretty good. She was a bit overwhelmed by all the talk, but when we got into the range, she was pretty excited about shooting. Said she "could see herself doing this for fun."
Success! Thanks to all who provided some great things for me to think about. In a couple intense days of talk and research, I think I have a decent, (yet basic) understanding of handguns. She/ We will be enrolling ourselves at the range for professional instruction.
Just to update everyone - as I'm sure you're all very interested in what I decided. (semi-
I went to Deerfield, WI last night with the young lady to a mom n pop dealer and indoor range. They talked us into test firing a (barely) used glock 19 previously owned by a cop. She liked it, wasn't intimidated by it, and showed some improvement in comfort and confidence between her first shot (ever) and her last - probably about 20+ trigger pulls. So, I bought it. I think she's pretty excited about it.
Overall, he experience was pretty good. She was a bit overwhelmed by all the talk, but when we got into the range, she was pretty excited about shooting. Said she "could see herself doing this for fun."
Success! Thanks to all who provided some great things for me to think about. In a couple intense days of talk and research, I think I have a decent, (yet basic) understanding of handguns. She/ We will be enrolling ourselves at the range for professional instruction.
Glad to hear! Keeping in practice is a good thing, and it's much easier to say in practice if it's something you enjoy doing.
The only problem I have found is that guns like to breed...:spinny:
Yeah - I'm noticing that as well. As i stated earlier, i have a .270 I use for deer hunting, so this is the 2nd in my collection - unless i call it hers... I have my eye on a .45 for myself... That will probably have to wait a few years though.
First I am going to agree that number of cycles will effect the life of a spring.
There are a lot of opinions floating around on this subject. The two sources that I go by and trust are an army armorer and an individual who use to compete nationally. I hope you are going on something more then Hooke's law and an engineer's belief that theory trumps reality.
There are reasons why the army unloads and rotates ready mags every two weeks. Cleaning, inspection, changing load order of ammo, and spring wear (set) are the ones most often quoted.
Not all magazines are created equally. The quality and design of the magazine has a major impact on how susceptible it is to these types of failures.
Magazines will wear out and need to be replaced. If you are shooting/cleaning/inspecting a weapon regularly then you will know when it is getting close to that time.
Put it in a gun safe and ignore it for a couple years and it may not perform when needed.
Just to update everyone - as I'm sure you're all very interested in what I decided. (semi-
I went to Deerfield, WI last night with the young lady to a mom n pop dealer and indoor range. They talked us into test firing a (barely) used glock 19 previously owned by a cop. She liked it, wasn't intimidated by it, and showed some improvement in comfort and confidence between her first shot (ever) and her last - probably about 20+ trigger pulls. So, I bought it. I think she's pretty excited about it.
Overall, he experience was pretty good. She was a bit overwhelmed by all the talk, but when we got into the range, she was pretty excited about shooting. Said she "could see herself doing this for fun."
Success! Thanks to all who provided some great things for me to think about. In a couple intense days of talk and research, I think I have a decent, (yet basic) understanding of handguns. She/ We will be enrolling ourselves at the range for professional instruction.
Congrats! Sounds like a good start to a fun and exciting career!
Well, I guess the only thing left to do is load up 100 magazines and put them in a drawer for 10 years and see if they still feed fine.
One example of an AK mag which has been stored loaded for 2.5 years:
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiESrofXGgk]Magazine Spring Test (Turn volume up) - YouTube[/ame]
Of course, there are thousands of magazine manufacturers and not all are created equal. As I said before, I have no problem storing a couple of mags fully stacked for an extended period of time and trusting them to work 100%. At the same time, I like to get most of the common guns together and run through a few magazines from time to time. Finally, magazines can fail for other reasons, which is why it is a good idea to carry a second (or third) magazine.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiESrofXGgk]Magazine Spring Test (Turn volume up) - YouTube[/ame]
Of course, there are thousands of magazine manufacturers and not all are created equal. As I said before, I have no problem storing a couple of mags fully stacked for an extended period of time and trusting them to work 100%. At the same time, I like to get most of the common guns together and run through a few magazines from time to time. Finally, magazines can fail for other reasons, which is why it is a good idea to carry a second (or third) magazine.
Also, a really good technical article which was first published in American Handgunner:
Magazine spring madness: 'creep' to your 'elastic limit' to un-earth the urban legend of 'spring-set' | American Handgunner | Find Articles
Magazine spring madness: 'creep' to your 'elastic limit' to un-earth the urban legend of 'spring-set' | American Handgunner | Find Articles
Congrats on your purchase! Hope you have access to a good range, seems to be a shortage of those in my area. Make nice with your local guard unit, I have a couple friends in the local unit and can use the indoor range whenever someone is around. Clean up your brass, be safe and they will always let you back.
