Considering a 9 mil Ruger....don't hate!

That's the gist of success. You know what lure catches the most bass? The one you fish with the most often. If you have confidence in your lure you will fish it more often, and not half-ass it...because you honestly believe it works.
And you focus on the lure that gives you warm fuzzies and damn if you don't catch some bass.

Odds are you can fish that lure better than anyone. Other fishermen of course have faith in other tactics.....that work for them. They could work for you too, but your ways work for you. :santa_ok:

Trigger creep is when you get to the break point of your trigger pull, and instead of breaking clean, there is some extra movement. Not to be confused with take up.

ok now explain take up.

Take up is a function of a 2 stage rifle trigger.

Take up the "slack", then squeeze the trigger.

I reckon it can also be used to describe the longer pull of a DA pistol.

This.

I misspoke earlier. That P85 of mine had bad creep and take up with its trigger.

I'm really not seeing any real argument against picking a caliber that's the best balance of stopping power and common availability, and stuffing it in the biggest magazine you can find. I'm sure I could wrap my hands around a double stack or learn to live with a few inches of magazine protruding below the grip.

Pretty logical. Where the balance lies is up to you, but here are the common cartridges from greater to lesser stopping power and, naturally, from lower to higher magazine capacity...

.45 ACP (8-13 rounds, bring big hands for the higher caps)
.40 S&W (15 rounds)
9mm (17 rounds)

I've always felt the 9mm was enough for self-defense, and I've also favored firepower over stopping power, so I've gone with the 9mm. Now that there are high (or, at least, higher) capacity .45s, I've begun to drift in that direction. The .40 S&W, which began life as a compromise, may be the best balance of stopping power and firepower (in a reasonably-sized gun).

That narrows it down to .45, as far as I'm concerned. Now, the platform. Criteria are reliability, durability and ease of maintenance.

What do you want the gun to do? Trust me, carrying a full-size high-capacity duty pistol 12+ hours a day, seven days a week gets old really, really fast. I know, I've done it for almost 20 years.

Also, for most people, slide length is pretty much a comfort decision when carrying concealed. Who cares if the slide goes half-way to my knee? The grip (and magazine) is what's hard to hide.

I'll be totally honest with you. For the last week or so, I've been carrying my J-Frame Chief shoved in my pocket. It only has five rounds, but I haven't worried about that even once. Sure, you can consider the once in a lifetime type events, but 95+% of all civilian self-defense shootings usually involve <3 rounds.

Kill as many zombies as possible without reloading.

Glock. On all three counts. Hands down the winner.

Utterly realiable. Utterly durable. And ease of maintenance is such that you can do everything you need to on the gun with a simple punch and soft mallet. Except sites. For that you need the sight tool.

Now you just have to choose which type:

.45 ACP (Glock 21, 30, 36)

.45 GAP (Glock 37, 38, 39)

The GAP is Glocks version of the .45 and the ACP is the original style .45 and is used by all the other .45 guns. I don't know of any non-Glock gun that uses the .45 GAP round though I'm sure someone here will point it out if one does.

I've not done 20 years but yeah it gets to be a pain. And concealing a Glock 22 is no picnic either. Espcially when you're fat. Like me.

I've been thinking this might be a good CCW for a revolver.

The S&W Bodygaurd 38.

http://www.smith-wesson.com/webapp/...4_750001_750051_757893_-1_757767_757751_image

I pretty much agree but there are other factors to consider. You're a big guy, so you can probably handle any of the common calibers. However, most people will have to practice a lot more to get follow up shots on target as fast with .40 s&W or .45apc as they can with 9mm. With that being said, availability of time and money with which to practice should be a consideration. That applies to platform too. I have to practice a lot more with a DA/SA trigger than I do with a SAO or striker system like on a Glock.

Oh, and if you wanna kill zombies a high capacity .22 pistol and as much ammo as you can carry would probably work pretty well, imo.:santa_ok:

Personally, I favor the .40 and I like the Glock 23 for best compromise between size, capacity and accuracy.

Another vote for the M&P .45 (or .40)...I'm pretty sure this is my next purchase. I'm going to get the .45, but would get the .40 if I could get the hi-cap mags.

I've heard good things about the M&P .45. But my .45 is probably going to be a nice 1911. I was leaning towards Taurus because you *ahem* get a lot of bang for your buck, but I thought I saw a Kimber that was pretty nice at a pretty reasonable price.

In a shooting situation, my Ruger P89DC would be my choice. However, the large frame makes it difficult to conceal, so I bought that Sig Sauer P-250 9mm.

Nothing wrong with today's 9mm cartridge. Somebody (Frontline? Shoes?) posted a pic awhile back of a ballistic comparison with slugs fired into gel. The 9mm kicked ass.

A quick look around suggests a Glock 21 in .45ACP with two 10-round magazines and basic cleaning tools can be had for about $500.00.

That's not out of the question at all....

If I had it to do all over again, I'd buy the slightly heavier Airweight version. My Chief (637) has a small hammer and I've read a lot of horror stories where that hammer has hung during pocket draw. But, my Chief is old enough to vote. It was my dad's backup gun before it was mine. For good or bad, I can't justify dropping money on another one.

Just be mindful. I load my Airweight Chief with +P+ loads. It kicks like a mule. I'd say it's actually worse than a 12ga shotgun loaded with buckshot. That Bodyguard with that new frame S&W is making is lighter than my Chief. If you load that thing with +P+ loads, well, you'd better be hanging on tight.

If any of you makes a joke, I swear to JoBoo that I will cut you.

Look at two guns. A Glock 20/21 is a fine gun. But, the grip is fuckin' HUGE! If you have gigantic hands, this won't be a problem. But, Glock now makes a 20/21SF. The SF stands for Short Frame. It's an otherwise standard Glock 20/21 with a grip that's been slimmed down to be more inline with the Glock 17/22 size frame.

If you do seriously look at 21SF, I will give you one piece of advice. Glock produced that gun when the US Army was considering asking for test models for a new sidearm. To meet the criteria of the test, Glock had to build a gun with a M1913 rail.

If you buy an early production model with the 1913 rail, it will not fit in standard Glock 21 holsters. You need to look at a more recent production model with the standard Glock rail which does away with that little problem.

I went with the shrouded hammer.

I figured there is no way that can catch on anything.

Meh, I wouldn't be bothering with fancy sights and whatnot anyway. I just want a basic, reliable piece of equipment that doesn't take a rocket surgeon to maintain or a map to a secret ammo depo to keep loaded.

I don't think he's saying the rail is non-standard on either. I think he's saying that early models don't fit in holsters that the regular G21 fits (so make sure you get a later model if that's a concern).

I don't think you can go wrong with a Glock. I have two (a G17 9mm and a G20 10mm) and I've been very satisfied with both.

It's not really "proprietary." Glock, Beretta, and Smith & Wesson use a slightly non-milspec rail configuration for functional reasons (a full milspec 1913 rail is much wider than the gun's dustcovers). 99.999% of accessories that will fit on a 1913 rail will fit on these rails. But, for those 0.001% that do get finicky, they come with adapters. My TLR-1S (Yay Christmas present!) came with removable "teeth" adapters to make the light fit 1913 milspec, Glock, Smith & Wesson, and Beretta rails.

As Paladin pointed out, I'm speaking strictly in the sense of holster fit.

What is a good model on which to hang that tiny flashlight for night situations? I don't want the laser sight per se...unless it's part of the flashlight. I just want the flaslight for obvious night situations.

If this is a carry piece, I'd just suggest a separate Surefire G2 or something similar as opposed to hanging a light from your gun. It comes in way handy in situations where you wouldn't want to pull your gun (I use mine all the damn time), and I imagine it would be hard to find a good holster that would accomodate.

My Sig 9mm came from the factory with a rail and night sights.

You're right: anything you can do to make the shot more precise is a plus. I'd always thought night sights were a luxury until I got my Sig. Now I wonder how I ever made do without them.