What some clueful instructors carry as their defensive firearm

bigwheelzip said:
Interesting to see where the OP's disjointed video premise leads.

Advice for people asking, who know nothing about CC choices, has no correlation to choices of "Rangemasters" who should be knowledgeable and proficient with anything likely to be found at the range.

Before I bought my first gun, I had a miserable time trying to operate my SIL's service Glock. I'm able to shoot it well now, but at the time I hated it.
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I think that's part of his *unspoken* point - they are proficient with anything likely to be seen at the range, AND see/fire more rounds than most anyone else...and the overwhelming majority of them choose S&W or glock.
Like he said, that's called "a clue".
 
bigwheelzip said:
As has been stated on this forum repeatedly, beginners should choose what appeals to them.
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I disagree. Beginners don't know the difference between a PPK and a "nice shiny" Jennings, and will often look first at the price unless instructed otherwise.
 
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Rastoff said:
Yes, but this just goes to my point more. Sure, police carry their guns every day, but they rarely use them. In fact, I'm sure I use my gun far more than the average police officer. So, they are not really a good benchmark for use.

By the way, this is not a guess, but based on my personal experience. I know several police officers. Actually, I talk to many throughout the year. None of them shoot their duty piece more than a couple hundred rounds a year. This is not what I consider a good example of use when considering reliability.
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I'm at the range at least once a week. Several local municipal departments use the range. Those of us that know stay away the weekend before quals for those departments. Some of those guys are the scariest I've seen with their weapons. A couple are very good (2 of whom are the departmental instructors) but most will tell you that they come in once the week before quals to re-familiarize themselves with their duty weapon.
 
My WAG is that less well than 10% of Police Officers get to choose their "duty weapon"...they are issued what the administration/ chief wants them to have..many don't get to choose their off duty guns either ( IIRC NYPD has a very short list).

Gun selection is often........"It's good enough and the price is right"

I recall that Glock went to great lengths to get the ATF to classify Glocks as DAO......as many Depts were moving away from SA/DA autos due to lawsuits alleging officers were 'cocking" their guns and having accidental discharges wounding or killing suspects!
 
Protected One said:
I disagree. Beginners don't know the difference between a PPK and a "nice shiny" Jennings, and will often look first at the price unless instructed otherwise.
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Fair point, though I'm a relatively new shooter, and as a female, representative of about half of the new CC'ers in this area. If in the beginning, a "helpful person" had put a 9mm Glock or M&P in my hand, and told me this is your CC, I'd never have CC'ed.
I hated the look, feel, and operation of them.

I needed to get comfortable with my choice of carry (revolvers), before I was willing to put the work (and CCing is work) into learning another platform.

Statistics are helpful but CCing is mostly a mental exercise, and a Jennings carried is better than anything else on the shelf of the safe.
 
I have a safe full of guns from full size to subcompact. All of them are criticized by other gun owners as either unreliable, inaccurate, not enough capacity, ineffective caliber, wrong grip angle, poor trigger, poor sights, unsafe... on and on and on... even had a renowned holster maker tell me some of my guns had unsafe paradigms and were so dangerous he refused to make holsters for them. Hell, I didn't even know my guns were equipped with paradigms.

For reasons that remain unexplained like a paranormal phenomenon... my handguns are reliable, I shoot them to my satisfaction and have experienced no accidental, negligent or otherwise unintentional discharge with any of them. And get this... I'm not even an instructor.
 
bigwheelzip said:
Fair point, though I'm a relatively new shooter, and as a female, representative of about half of the new CC'ers in this area. If in the beginning, a "helpful person" had put a 9mm Glock or M&P in my hand, and told me this is your CC, I'd never have CC'ed.
I hated the look, feel, and operation of them.

I needed to get comfortable with my choice of carry (revolvers), before I was willing to put the work (and CCing is work) into learning another platform.

Statistics are helpful but CCing is mostly a mental exercise, and a Jennings carried is better than anything else on the shelf of the safe.
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That makes perfect sense. Keep in mind though...M&P DOES have a revolver in the lineup too. :)

BTW. If I had ANYTHING else, there's no way it would be in the safe while I carry a Jennings! :eek::eek::eek:
 
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Interesting video, but I'm not impressed with the statistics quoted.

Most LEOs don't have much say in their duty pistols. Plus, most young shooters now have only shot striker fired pistols. I suspect, most range masters want to appear current with their firearm choice and are cost conscious about ammo too.

I'm sticking with my CCW which was designed for police concealed carry. My choice is a Walther PPS40.
 
rwsmith said:
I don't know how many or what kind of competition there is where carry type guns are used, but if there is, they should have a lot to say about the reliability of certain guns. Especially if the contest is timed or if other types of pressure are put on the competitors.

I don't know if anybody has collected data of misfeeds, misfires, miseverthing else concerning the guns, but it sure would be useful to have such knowledge. Right now I would settle for data on just the Shield, Glock and the 9c.
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When I was doing IDPA, I used to chuckle whenever someone's Glock choked, and he blamed it on his homebrew reloads. Yeah, ok.
 
Rastoff said:
How to select the right carry gun:
  1. You must be able to shoot it well.
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I'm not a semi-auto-kind-of-guy, but I try to be open minded and learn from those who have a clue.

Through this discussion I was amazed it took till post #27 to get to the logic in Rastoff's criteria -- truly the only one that counts in my mind.
 
Grip Force Adapter might be something worthy of consideration for those who have a Glock or want a Glock but the grip angle doesn't agree with them.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsqWaoasNwo[/ame]

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTpX4ysYmr8[/ame]
 
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URIT said:
I suspect, most range masters want to appear current with their firearm choice and are cost conscious about ammo too.
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Made me laugh...... Can you imagine a "Range Master" at the range with a 3" Model 66........

Students " Who's the old dude... and what's that he's carrying? Lets get out of here!!!!!!!!"
 
BAM-BAM said:
Made me laugh...... Can you imagine a "Range Master" at the range with a 3" Model 66........



Students " Who's the old dude... and what's that he's carrying? Lets get out of here!!!!!!!!"
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I’ve had people follow me around trying to figure out what I was carrying.
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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Ozark Marine said:
Well then I'm 1ST MARDIV FMF PAC (-)

Sounds a lot more impressive than I'm a SMU in a bar.
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Here in North TX, calling yourself SMU in the wrong bar could cause trouble because people will assume it means your a rich brat attending Southern Methodist University. Of course if you’re the other kind, you can probably handle it.

I see lots of opinions based on initial ergonomics or what “feels best.” And that likely will better short term shooting, but:

What “feels best” is the universal advice I see for first-time shotgun buyers. And almost universally, inexperienced shotgunners will pick a gun that is too short and too light (in fairness, that’s pretty much what you’ll find on the racks of gun shops.). And that may work fine for the casual shooter. But put in the time shooting sporting clays and learning how to correctly mount a shotgun, the longer stock prevents “hinging” and the greater weight improves follow through.

I recently swapped a Glock 22 for a Security Six and regret it somewhat. After a thousand rounds, I was getting better with the Glock.

As a lifelong revolver guy, starting out with a .40 was probably a mistake as the recoil was more substantial than with a nice, muzzle-heavy revolver. So next go-round will probably be a Glock 17 or 34 then graduate to the .40 (I had bought the 22 to start USPSA limited.)

The point of all this being, it’s really impossible to say what’s best until you’ve invested a significant amount of time and training with a gun. What “feels good” may not be what’s best once you’ve trained adequately with the gun that doesn’t feel good.
 
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