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Six Things Your Gun Store Clerk Wants You To Know
1. Beginners should buy beginner’s guns.
We’re happy you’ve decided to take responsibility for your own protection and are looking for a concealed-carry pistol. However, most small pocket pistols are not for first-time gun owners: They’re hard to control because they pack a powerful punch in a small package and are not easy guns to shoot on a regular basis. Sure, they’re easy to carry around and have enough firepower to stop the threat, but that power and small size makes them very unpleasant guns for practice and training. All the firepower in the world does you little good if you can’t hit the target.
2. You’re not as good a shot as you think you are, especially under stress.
Yes, you may go the range each week and punch a nice, ragged hole in the target with careful, aimed shots. This sort of thing definitely helps, but unless you mix some kind of real or artificial stress into your firearms practice, the adrenaline dump you’ll feel when the proverbial stuff hits the proverbial fan will come a complete surprise to you and have a profound effect on your accuracy.
3. Which gun is best for your wife/girlfriend/daughter? Let her decide for herself.
Most indoor ranges have a wide selection of guns available to rent and professional instructors who can help find a gun that suits them best. A snub-nosed .38 with pink grips might be the best gun for your wife, but let your wife come to that decision, not you.
4. Guns are not talismans of self-protection.
Access to a firearm does not make someone safe: What makes someone safe is access to a firearm and the will and skill to use it effectively. If you’re going to buy a gun, make the commitment to learn how to use it, and then make sure it’s stored in some way that’s safe and easily accessible when you need it. If you carry concealed, get a good quality holster that covers the trigger and a rigid gun belt to keep gun and holster in the same place all the time. If you keep a gun in your home, store it in a way that keeps it safe from unauthorized access. Underneath your bed, unloaded, in its original box is neither safe nor easily accessible.
5. Safety first, second, and last.
We thank you for bringing in your gun for cleaning or gunsmithing work, but if you haven’t visually and physically checked to see if your gun is unloaded before you entered our store, please allow us to take care of clearing it and unloading it for you. Also, while I’m sure that the pistol on your hip is God’s gift to self-protection, I don’t need to see it right now. Please keep it in your holster while you’re in my store. Thank you.
6. Stop believing the myths.
No, snakeshot in a .38 is not the last word in defensive firepower. Racking a pump-action shotgun will not make a determined attacker run away in fear. A .22 Long Rifle may or may not be the preferred caliber for assassins around the world, but you’re not a professional hit man, so carry something with a little more punch behind it. By the same token, carry something you can shoot rapidly and accurately. If you’re hoping for a one-stop shot, you’re certain to be disappointed. And if you carry, please carry with one in the chamber and the appropriate safeties engaged.
Published in General, Guns
My wife and I got back last night from a high power rifle clinic, so this was a gratifying post to see on the Rico feed!
A question for the assembled expertise:
Our handgun battery is all Glock: A 34 (me), 17 (wife) and 2 x 36s for CCW. One caliber to stock/reload, one action so we can immediately use anything we needed to pick up in an emergency.
The wrinkle: The wife has joined a ladies’ shooting group that assembles at a club indoor range with a very old backstop, hence they can only shoot rimfire, and only basic 22 at that. She’s been borrowing others’ spare guns, but that’s not a good plan.
The issue: Glock famously does not make a dedicated 22LR handgun. I’ve read the reviews on the conversion kits, and I’m less than impressed. Cost almost as much as a decent gun, and have a record of being finicky about ammo and having a high malf rate even then. Tap/rack drills are fine, but not because you have no choice – not fun!
So, do I stick with the all-one-action rule and buy one of those in spite of misgivings, or go for a dedicated 22LR handgun? I dry fired one of the Colt/Walter 22LR 1911s owned by another attendee at the mentioned clinic, and was pretty impressed. Handled well, crisp trigger. Of course that violates the all-one-action rule.
What to do? Opinions?
1911 .22 conversions can be very finicky. CCI Mini-Mags seem to be the recommended brand for reliable operation. I have a Kimber 1911 with the Kimber .22 conversion slide and I tried a dozen different brands of .22 LR ammo before someone suggested the CCI Mini-Mags. I suspect the Glock conversions have the same preference (Read the bottom of the Ad).
If you insist on training with one type of firearm, buy the slide conversion and use the recommended ammo.
The issue was really about the slide. It was so stiff she coudn’t work it. I thought it might getter over time, but we put probably 500 rounds through it and it never got any better. Plus it was no fun to shoot. But the M&P was nice from day 1.
Ahhhh you have a Kimber huh? I hate you. (sorry that’s the jealousy talking)
I don’t think sticking with one round for all of your guns is really necessary. (It’s advisable when you are in charge of keeping an army supplied, but that isn’t the case here.) If you keep certain guns in certain places in your house, each gun must (obviously) have its ammo consistently available nearby. So it would be just fine for one gun to be a .38 Special revolver with a couple of backup speedloaders, while in another place you might have a .45 or a 9 mm, with a couple of magazines of appropriate ammo. Each of which has been trained with and is perfectly familiar to its user. Or am I missing something?
I prefer a variety of ammo shooting guns-you never know what will be on the shelf-have several calibers covered. Who would have thought .22 would be rationed at Walmart?
Still? I stopped buying it because I have so much, and it’s become so readily available, at least ’round these parts (western Washington).
Following up on this suggestion – if I were to seek out this kind of arrangement, what brand(s) or model(s) would be a good starting point?
Well, I am never not going to recommend my beloved CZ’s because of their accuracy and ergonomics, but they are not everyone’s cup of tea. They do, however, make an excellent .22 adapter for the CZ75.
I’d look at the Smith&Wesson M&P .22 Compact and a 9mm M&P. The M&P line is the leading “not Glock” brand out there, and they are proven performers. If not that, there is an excellent little .22 Glock clone out there, and you can’t go wrong with that teamed up with a Model 17.
http://www.waltherarms.com/handguns/ppq-22/
and
http://www.waltherarms.com/handguns/ppq-m2/