[leftnose]

Others can give you guidance on handguns better than I as my focus is on shotguns.

However, if you live in an apartment complex, I would certainly only look at the smallest calibers for a home defense gun. I would be most worried about a bullet going through a wall and hurting someone in an adjacent room.

 

[Karlos]

Life for the firearms fan is far from easy in the UK, but I have three rifles

Semi custom PSS 700 in .223 with a Jewel trigger and jeweled bold with a Badger Ordinance bolt knob. Shoots sub MOA. It's going in an AICS soon.

I also have a .308 Sako 75 S/S varmint with a Holland brake on the end,

A .22lr Model 64

A .357 LBR

And a Browning Cynergy 12 bore

 

[number1sixerfan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by leftnose /img/forum/go_quote.gif Others can give you guidance on handguns better than I as my focus is on shotguns. However, if you live in an apartment complex, I would certainly only look at the smallest calibers for a home defense gun. I would be most worried about a bullet going through a wall and hurting someone in an adjacent room.

That is a very large concern of mine. Aren't certain bullets that can be used that will not likely penetrate the walls?

 

[Old Pa]

Quote:

Originally Posted by number1sixerfan /img/forum/go_quote.gif That is a very large concern of mine. Aren't certain bullets that can be used that will not likely penetrate the walls?

State law and local ordinances govern your right to purchase and possess firearms; private apartment complexes should have nothing to do with it. You need at least a .35 caliber handgun (.38Spl/.357Mag/9mm) with modern jacketed hollowpoint ammunition (115gr-140gr bullet weight) and good shot placement to effectively stop a determined adversary. Put all your rounds center mass of your adversary and you won't have to worry about them going through common walls.

It is my usual advice to folks that if they are unable or unwilling to defend themselves with their hands/feet/teeth and anything just laying around that they should not go to a firearm for self defense. The goblin will just take it away and use it on you. See if you can find a copy of Jeff Cooper's "Principles of Self Defense" at a local gunstore, read it, get your mind right, and see all you can do for your own security before you arm yourself further. Think about a nonlethal weapon (pepper spray/CN gas/club); you will need to have this option even if you have a firearm for situations which do not warrant lethal force.

All that said, quality semiautomatic .22LR rifle and/or pistol makes dandy first firearms. You can practice and master all your skills with inexspensive ammunition with firearms you will not outgrow and, in a pinch, they will serve to deter and even stop a dangerous adversary. Just keep shooting and don't stop to admire your work.

 

[Ech0]

Sig Sauer P239 (.40 S&W) for home protection.

S&W .357 Mag for fun. Nice, that you can use .38 Special rounds in it.

An old Marlin lever action 30cal I used for deer hunting a long time ago (first gun).

 

[ronin74]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Old Pa /img/forum/go_quote.gif Nothing like a precision air rifle/pistol to tell you the truth.

Pa,
My 10-meter hallway quickly converts into my in-door .177 off-hand range. No ordinances governing in-home pellet discharge, also no excuses.
I'm not (yet) worthy of an Anschutz 2013:

A contributing member of USA Shooting - for the US Olympic Shooting Team.

 

[ronnielee54]

Remington 300 Savage, SW Model 27 357 mag, Colt Anaconda (8-inch barrel) 44 mag, Ruger P85 9mm, and Automag 22 mag

 

[Old Pa]

June wound up being my second trip to NoDak/SoDak. In May, I started in NoDak around the east side of TRNP and worked down to Wall, SD before heading home. Winds were blowing a steady 20-30MPH with gusts to 40MPH and 50MPH, so ethics held shots down to under 250 yards (holding 4 minutes into the wind at 100 yards with .223). It also became clear that the poodles aren't really up that early in the year. But scouting was done, zeroes were confirmed, new loads were checked, beer was drunk, rare grass fed beef was consumed, etc.

The 110 .357RemMag load (chronoing 2025FPS muzzle out of 12" T/C Contender with iron sights) took poodles out to (lazed) 136 yards and laid them out as if they had been dressed. Very impressive. Also fun.

Our problems with our "hosts" in SoDak developed as they insisted on putting us repeatedly on the same small and shot-out towns. In May, we shot only two days. In June, we shot one day and then left after the guy was rude to Mike when Mike stopped by to tell him one of his bulls had a banged up leg. By then, my development of places we could shoot without paying had taken us out of our "host's" clutches.

Last day shooting in SoDak was on BLM land north of Sturgis. We got put on a town and my section had targets out past 800 yards. Plenty of chance to try out the new .243AI and compare it to the .22-250; it adds about 200 effective yards and shoots as well as the old boy can hold. Some vary satisfying DRT thumps out past 700 yards. Good to have both rifles, however, as both rifles heat up quickly. The .223Rem still remains, IMHO, the best general purpose poodle rifles and you can do a lot worse in .223Rem than a Tikka G3, Rem 700, or accurate heavy barrel AR.
Quote:

My 10-meter hallway quickly converts into my in-door .177 off-hand range. No ordinances governing in-home pellet discharge, also no excuses.

My ten meter fault line is off the arm to the loveseat (especially when there are spaniels on it

) in the corner of my office with trap in the reloading room through the "quartermaster's room". I have an RWS Diana Model 75 (left handed) and a RWS 6M to keep me humble and honest. They do.

 

[ronin74]

Supreme Court upholds gun ownership right

Well it looks like the good-guys finally won one.

Not from my cold dead hands!

Charlton Heston may you RIP.

"Long live the Freedom Fighters!" - Muad'Dib -

 

[oicdn]

I've started looking at guns lately, as my roomy is HEAVILY into guns. He has a PLETHORA of handguns, and the one that interests me most is his COP Pepperbox:

It's the one he usually carries around (has a concealed weapon permit) and is pretty sharp looking. The difference between his and the one pictured is his has better looking wood for his grip.

 

[Samgotit]

Quote:

Originally Posted by synaesthetic /img/forum/go_quote.gif The fact that he uses that as a carry piece should worry you. Jeez, anything smaller than .380 ACP is not an acceptable defensive round.

That's a .357.

 

[Naga]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Old Pa /img/forum/go_quote.gif It remains very unsettling that five highly educated, intelligent jurists sitting on our highest court, and having given their oath to uphold the Constitution, "find" that the Second Amendment does not provide an individual right and offer a "balancing" test unlike anything used for any other Constitutional right or protection to sidestep the majority's decision in the first gun rights case to reach the Court in 70 years. We did not win this one by much and 5-4 is way too close for an primary individual liberty and protection the Founders put second only to freedom of religion and speech. More like we just dodged a bullet.

My sentiments are similar. The trend against the 2nd may well continue.

 

[synaesthetic]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samgotit /img/forum/go_quote.gif That's a .357.

lolwut...

Crazy, the photo makes it look like a .32...

I wonder if it can be modded to fire all four barrels at once. >.>

 

[Uncle Erik]

Quote:

Originally Posted by number1sixerfan /img/forum/go_quote.gif That is a very large concern of mine. Aren't certain bullets that can be used that will not likely penetrate the walls?

Hollowpoints generally will not go through walls. They flower open when they hit something and are pretty ineffective after that. I keep the USP loaded with SXT hollowpoints at home.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Old Pa /img/forum/go_quote.gif It remains very unsettling that five highly educated, intelligent jurists sitting on our highest court, and having given their oath to uphold the Constitution, "find" that the Second Amendment does not provide an individual right and offer a "balancing" test unlike anything used for any other Constitutional right or protection to sidestep the majority's decision in the first gun rights case to reach the Court in 70 years. We did not win this one by much and 5-4 is way too close for an primary individual liberty and protection the Founders put second only to freedom of religion and speech. More like we just dodged a bullet.

A win is a win. The Supreme Court rarely overturns itself, so this decision should stand for many years. And it'll take several years for a different case to snake through the appellate level, as well. We'll definitely have a different President by then, possibly a new Justice or two.

 

[synaesthetic]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uncle Erik /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hollowpoints generally will not go through walls. They flower open when they hit something and are pretty ineffective after that. I keep the USP loaded with SXT hollowpoints at home.

My FNP9 stays loaded with hollowpoints when I'm at home, sitting within fairly easy access--no kids, only cats, who don't have opposable thumbs. =P When I go play with it at the range it loses the hollowpoints in favor of cheap 9mm FMJ which is good for putting holes in paper men. =P

So far it's never discharged a hollowpoint yet, and I hope that this gun's barrel burns out being used as a hole punch before it fires one. I've had a few crazy moments in my complex--the neighbors can get a little rowdy when they're drunk, but nothing a threat to call the cops and a wiggled cell phone hasn't solved.

Really though, anyone looking for a good, reliable, fairly accurate SA/DA autopistol, the FNP9 is a really nice gun at a GREAT price. It's almost too easy to find them for under $400 and with a little digging you can find them for $300. FN Herstal makes good stuff.