Recent content by Smokin Gator

I've had a stainless 445 2". For over 20 years. I really like it. Shoots great.

The Marlins can handle the Buffalo Bore and Garret ammo designed to function in leveractions. But the Winchester is a bit stronger.

There are shots I'd feel much more confident about taking carrying my full size guns vs my 44 Special 2". At 25 yards in a self defense situation I'd like to be able to make center mass hits. Head shots, let alone "brain" shots, I'm not betting on it. I compete. I sometimes shoot some 25 yard...

The statistics on the number of people who have reloaded or needed to reload during a gun fight may be skewed because so few people carry an extra mag. You can't use the extra mag if you don't carry one, so even if an incident occurred where a person needed one but didn't have it, it would be...

I also don't envision myself putting an optic on on my carry gun at this point. While many self defense incidents may be at that 3 yard distance obviously some will be at greater distance. I'm shooting more with an optic currently but it has helped my iron sight shooting too. I've competed with...

I like this 250gr 45 from Matts Bullets. I've only loaded it with smokeless but you could pan lube these with bp lube. Decent sized lube groove. I shoot the 250 gr Big Lube with bp.

Here's what convinced me to give optics a try. A shooter I know who is an LEO and master level USPSA shooter primarily shooting Single Stack and Limited, never shot Open. He started shooting some Carry Optics and now says he wishes he had started shooting with a slide mounted optic sooner...

I've started shooting an optic in competition for about a year now. It's getting better as time goes on. But I was in no way convinced they were the way to go the first time I shot with one. If you are just standing in one position taking your time shooting a target that first day may go...

I have lots of 1911 Wilson mags. When shooting competition I can swap out a really dirty mag with a clean one with no to clean during the match. But if the squads are big I'll just go ahead and clean them so I don't need to clean a bunch later. My CZ mags that hold more rounds need cleaning...

Shot one of our small local USPSA matches. 7th out of 20 overall. Shooting a CZSPO1 Shadow ( limited optics)I bought a few months ago. Shooting next Saturday at another local on my Birthday (71). Then going to a place for burgers and a beer where I celebrated my 21st 50 years ago. Might shoot...

We had a male donkey that came originally from blm roundup. Many years later we had to put him down. Now we have his daughter. She pals around with our goats and protects them. Months after we first got her dad at about the same time she was born he figured out how to escape. He had never got...

We really have nothing in the house of any real dollar value other then firearms, shooting gear and ammo, components. Our personal momentos have only value to us. No valuable electronics. A couple of years old medium sized big screens that would be no big deal.

I did read in a recent American Rifleman about a guy who shot one of three criminals in a home invasion attempt with a muzzle loader. He critcally wounded the one attacker while the other 2 ran off. It said he closed the door then called police so apparently they got through the door. Still...

That's a good idea to have it at a local match if you're seeing fixed time stages at majors in your area. Shooters at local clubs have brought chronographs to local matches to allow newer shooters going to their first level 2 match to check their pf prior to going.