10 characters, Got Guns?

That sounds like you live in a pretty cool area.
I mainly punch paper, make it sort of like Zen in archery, become one with the movements. I met someone who would go all over the world, bow hunting with a traditional recurve. He got into the zen of it also and said as soon as his string hand touched his cheek, the shot was out. You know where the shot is going to go before it’s gone. Martial arts did that for me too, become one with the movements and perfect each one into a seamless flow. Used to do that with shooting pool also, but not in bars as that was for entertainment and fun.
For scoped rifles, it’s trying to put a hole in a hole, the archer’s arrow into the arrow before.

Yeah, I’m retired and get bored easily…

Pepper spray. Love guns but paddling they get wet and it’s more work and a PITA to clean them. The stream doesn’t seem to get affected by the wind but is highly effective on humans AND animals. Especially dogs! Spray anyone or anything it’s like giving them a huge kick in the balls, takes the wind out of their sails and they lose all their aggressive fighting spirit instantly. That said there are situations where a firearm is called for but that’s more for real life 24/7 carry. Paddling out there in nature humans are seldom a threat. It’s usually animals and they move so quick the spray/stream just guaranteed a better hit probability right in the face/nouse/snout/eyes in the heat of the moment.

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Although I don’t own one by all accounts the Ruger SR is one of the better 22 LR autoloader pistols. As for the reliability of 22 LR ammunition I would suggest that you keep buying whatever you are buying wherever you are getting it because my experience has been quite different than yours.

I too have shot many thousands of rounds of 22 LR of many different brands out of the three rifles and one pistol I own. I also have shot and helped out at 22 LR shooting events such as three position rifle shooting at the rifle range I belong to so I have watched people shooting many different types of 22 LR out of many different firearms of all brands. Our weekend three position events might have two dozen people each shooting 200 rounds or more over the two days. So the number of rounds of 22 LR that I have personally witnessed being shot would come to many hundreds of thousands. And in my experience, misfires are pretty common.

There is no question that reliability increases with cost. With the low cost loose packed 22 LR like Remington Thunderbolts (AKA Thunderduds) and Golden Bullets, Federal Auto Match and the like the misfire rate is quite high, not only for me but and my firearms but for many other shooters and firearms. If we have a line of 10 rifle shooters firing a course of 10 rounds using this type of ammunition at least one misfire out of the 100 rounds is virtually guaranteed to occur.

Reliability of the individually packed 22 LR is much better. I have actually had reasonably good luck with Aguila although others I know curse it. CCI is pretty good but misfires do occur with it not only in my hands but in those of other shooters. I can’t recall having a misfire with SK Match but I have only shot a few hundred rounds of it. I have had the occasional misfire with various brands of Eley and with Wolf Match Target. But I pick up 22 LR cartridges at the range all of the time that have striker impacts and they are of all brands, CCI included. We have a dud barrel at each bay that fills up in about a week and 99% of the cartridges in it are 22 LR.

After the last prolonged 22 LR ammunition shortage started to abate, I and others noted a significant decrease in reliability of many brands compared to past performance. I hope the same thing does not occur this go-around. Where I live 22 LR ammunition is still pretty much unobtainable and the on-line vendors that I have used in the past have none in inventory.

no I’m not packin’. Sometimes I feel like I’m in the minority living in wv. The further I get away from civilization, the safer I feel. I carry bear spray some places out west and usually carry a stick hiking- helps with snakes and obnoxious dogs. Don’t know of any ww kayakers who have firearms while actually paddling. A buddy of mine shoots his hand gun off for the noise. It deter bears from getting into his trash.

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Bear Spray. I’ve used mace (gel) on humans and pepper spray on about 8 dogs. If I were to bring a spray in the woods/camping, it’d be bear spray as the smaller pepper sprays have too small of a pattern to get eye shots if you have to deploy it in a hurry. Having a dog and/or another person(s) would be the best insurance against unforseen circumstances arising.

In CO, a lot of people ‘live’ in the national forests and work in the mountain towns. A lot of them are illegals also. The mtns around mt evans, idaho springs there are a few homeless camps where they go when it gets too hot in denver. And people go up around there to camp. One good thing legalizing reefer in CO has done is to take the narco groups out of the national forests as they can have grow houses now.

If they are going ww instead of wilderness tripping where people camp out, then I agree, they’d really not have any reason to bring a firearm along in the river, no matter the experience of burt renolds…

Agreed. That’s one of the reasons people need to have range time–so they can not only practice, but find out what works and what doesn’t. I think to have an autoloading 22LR pistol function reliably, it takes a good bit of engineering to pull that off. SW tried to use their M&P full size pistol frame work w/a 22LR. That’s the terrible gun I was talking about. It was made by walther in germany so it also had QC problems. Geometry was the problem for feeding. The SR22 wasn’t constricted by design, so IMO that’s why it’s far better.

The MP compact 22 is far better. Again, IMO, that shortened everything up to the geometry changed from mag to chamber, getting rid of the feeding problems. I think I have 5-7K rounds through that one and have had a few short cycling with it, so failure to feed. So that will be one I won’t trust for anything but my draw and shoot range stuff.

I’ve had good luck with agila, their super high performance whatever it is, but have only shot a few hundred rounds of it so far. I’m getting rid of my lower power rounds first as 1200 f/s seems to be the threshold where if a pistol’s going to have a problem, under that velocity is where a lot of it will show up. And match/target rounds are in that area.

Those bucket of bullets by rem are around 1400 f/s and have proven to be reliable for me—very dirty, but reliable. Those are what got me to only use a little grease on the rails for lube and that’s it. I just wish I would have bought more of them while they were on the shelves. The stores were selling Eley last as that’s all they had. I read the box and didn’t buy any of them.

I avoid “combloc” ammo as they have never had the reputation for good QC. PPU from serbia is the exception to that and they have excellent–and affordable–ammo. I don’t think they do rimfire tho. One of the most common faults of combloc ammo is misfires and that seems to be due to “hard primers”. They also are low power 223. I just don’t trust them.

I’m fortunate as local farm stores seem to always get some in when others don’t–and they don’t jack up the price. You should try “ammoseek” dot com to search for ammo. It’ll give you an idea what’s out there too tho some of their vendors are more pricey than other places on the net.

Those and moose where I am, and yes moose can be more dangerous to encounter than a bear. I pack for them, but don’t really worry much. The same way you put on a seat belt even though you don’t plan on crashing.

Moose are incredibly dangerous. Problem is, that they basically don’t care what you do to them. Best that will happen with a handgun is that it might startle them and they run off. More likely is that they snort at you and keep doing whatever they want to.

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Hell, more likely to need a gun in the front country than the back.

But of course you’re not likely to need one at all and they can cause more harm than good.

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Wow. I knew that moose were dangerous, but that’s a whole 'nuther level. Throw in their eyesight and that’s definitely something to avoid. Cape Buffalo of The North.

I agree with your first line. When i lived in a city a group of males would stake out parking lots at condo complexes and target women coming back after work. They’d carjack them, then have them withdrawl money from ATMs. My GF at the time and female neighbors would call me when they were pulling in and I’d meet them, then walk them from their vehicle. I had a compact 9mm that fit perfectly in my jeans pocket. Another time I stopped 2 kids w/a gun from assaulting/carjacking this old lady in a store’s parking lot. I only had my knife then and if I would have known that the ‘justice system’ would do nothing to them and let them go, I never would have gotten involved. After my friend was murdered in a parking lot where people were breaking into cars, I figured it was time to leave and just let the city people get what they voted for. Now I’m in a small rural town and love it. Don’t have to “be strapped” as they call it when I leave the house. Like going back in time.

How can my gun “cause more harm than good”? I don’t understand that.

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True that I don’t expect to need it, but like I said. I don’t expect to crash and yet I put on my seat belt.
More harm than good? I don’t see how. My gun doesn’t bother anyone unless it’s asked to. Never asked it to but if I need it, it’s certainly not likely to make the situation worse. At least not for the good guys.

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Owning a firearm intended for self-defense carries an obligation that the owner become at least reasonably proficient with its function and use. That requires some degree of regular practice which frankly is becoming harder with the current ammunition shortage and very high prices, and the decreasing number of ranges open to the public in many areas.

IMO anyone who is unable and unwilling to make the commitment required to become proficient with a self-defense firearm probably shouldn’t own one. A lot of those folks who purchase a handgun for home protection, shoot it once or not at all, and then stick it in their nightstand drawer might well be better off without it.

Certainly there are instances in which a firearm can do more harm than good. Such as a confrontation where someone takes your weapon away from you and shoots you with it, or an unsecured weapon that is stolen and used for nefarious purposes or picked up by a kid resulting in tragic consequences.

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Always…just a simple glock 19…but when in the back country who can you call if you get in a bad situation with a 2 legged aggressor? Not usually worried about the 4 legged critters, most of the time they give us humans a wide margin.

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I used to bring bear spray and agree that functionally it’s easier to use in certain circumstances. The oft said and mostly wrong statement about a shotgun ‘aiming in a general direction because you can’t miss’ is actually true with bear spray. The cone is HUGE and opens up quick. I bring it on hikes and neighborhood walks as for a time period people used to leave their dogs outdoors unsupervised and had many run ins. I also installed and fashioned a holder on my Mountain Bike’s handlebars. But for kayaking it’s too bulky. And the problem with bear spray is the splash back vs say a gel or stream spray which isn’t as affected by wind. The other thing all pepper sprays suffer from and bear spray is the worst is that the trigger and tip mechanism is fragile and prone to breakage. In a kayak the larger device is just more vulnerable to getting caught on stuff or bumped by things.

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I agree! When I go to public ranges, I always keep an eye out for those who look like they could use some input. What’s amazing to me is that guys are very receptive to it, which I didn’t expect. Some show their appreciation by offering to give me some ammo, which I pass. I’d like to get more involved in helping others out, but like you said, the ammo shortages has really reduced the number of people at ranges.

That drives me nuts and what’s a trip about it is people get mad at YOU because of their untrained dog. Just happened again to me last monday when out for a walk, someone’s dog came running into the street at me and my dogs. As my hands were full with 2 leashes I kicked the dog away and the owner became furious at me for doing that. Then my big boy went after her big pet. IMO, these are the same people who, when their kid(s) get into trouble, they blame someone else or argue about it.

The problem with bear spray is exactly like you said–it’s big–so the odds of having it on your body when you need it are very low. The smaller, self defense pepper spray is over rated, but better than nothing. Putting your palm out, lowering your head, wearing glasses all greatly reduce the efficacy of it. And if they’re on drugs, it won’t work. I saw a guy getting OC by PD from a foot away, right in his face, and it did nothing. The guy was tripping on acid and thankfully was peaceful.

I pretty much avoid public ranges these days because you never know who is going to be next to you and I have seen some really unsafe and stupid things done, such as muzzle flashing your neighbor and even walking downrange to check a target without first calling a cease fire. But I agree that this is seldom the result of deliberately doing something wrong but just the result of ignorance.

The typical public indoor range will require any participants to view a video on safe gun handling and range procedures but one can hardly expect a short video to make a newbie proficient in handling a firearm just as watching a short video on whitewater safety doesn’t make a new whitewater rafting client proficient in swift water rescue. But I suppose it is the best that a public range can do.

Of course, there is no guarantee of safe gun handling on the part of everyone at a private range or club but the odds are much higher. And almost always someone who is not adhering to the safety rules is amenable to education. Any who might not be are simply reported to the range officer.

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And that is the reason that I always tell people that don’t shoot much that if they want a defense gun, get a revolver.
A glock, 1911 or other semiauto can jam and unless you shoot a lot that is going to take to much time and attention to clear. If a wheel gun fails to fire, you just pull the hammer back and hit it agian.

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Yes. I don’t know how many times I have seen someone eject a chambered round from their auto-loader by racking the slide, then dropping the magazine, and thinking that their pistol was “clear”.

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