Grab and go gun

[Trunk Monkey]

I'm sitting in my house/walking my dogs/running to the store or post office/taking a commercial flight. How can you tell if I'm safe?

You're not

 

[Pudge]

But I was. I mean, as I walked my dogs this morning, would my safety have been impacted by carrying a .380, 5 shot revolver, 6 shot revolver, 9mm, 9mm with multiple reloads, or an AR 15? And how can you possibly evaluate my carry strategy?

 

[Trunk Monkey]

But I was. I mean, as I walked my dogs this morning, would my safety have been impacted by carrying a .380, 5 shot revolver, 6 shot revolver, 9mm, 9mm with multiple reloads, or an AR 15? And how can you possibly evaluate my carry strategy?

How do you define safety? There's always a potential for trouble. I've said it before probably in this thread I would have told you I was safe the night I walked out my front door and right into a robbery. How safe was I?

 

[Great Scot]

then I misunderstood the premise of this thread. I thought it was instead of your usual ccw, what is your grab and go gun for things like yard work, jogging, checking the mailbox while walking the dog..... as in something small and light that you can slip into a pocket quickly instead of suiting up like usual.

that was the intent of the thread. I was just curious if people use a smaller gun for relatively quick, mundane tasks that are usually at or near their homes. The conversation may have drifted a bit.

 

[Trunk Monkey]

I was just curious if people use a smaller gun for relatively quick, mundane tasks that are usually at or near their homes.

If you wouldn't trust those guns for daily carry why would you carry them at all?

 

[Pudge]

How do you define safety? There's always a potential for trouble. I've said it before probably in this thread I would have told you I was safe the night I walked out my front door and right into a robbery. How safe was I?

I think that's what I'm asking. You need to evaluate the threats you face, and prepare accordingly. There is always potential for trouble. But the trouble I am likely to face might well be in a very different spectrum from yours. To suggest that someone's decision in regards to their safety is thoughtless or unreasonable based on what firearm they carry or how much ammo they load out with isn't always the most informed position to take. Which brings us to the subject of the thread. We all draw the line somewhere, can there be a place for smaller, lighter, lower capacity firearms in personal protection, and how do you evaluate your use of such weapons?

 

[Mike J]

What I carry is usually dictated by how I am dressed. There are times around the house I don't carry. Other times that I do. I don't carry at my job because it would be more of a problem than an asset. If not at home or work I am armed. Most of the time I carry a M&P 2.0 Compact. If I want to be more discreet than that allows I have a Kahr CM9. Not criticizing anyone else's choices but I don't really care to carry anything smaller than a 9. We all make our choices & take our chances.

 

[Trunk Monkey]

I think that's what I'm asking. You need to evaluate the threats you face, and prepare accordingly. There is always potential for trouble. But the trouble I am likely to face might well be in a very different spectrum from yours. To suggest that someone's decision in regards to their safety is thoughtless or unreasonable based on what firearm they carry or how much ammo they load out with isn't always the most informed position to take. Which brings us to the subject of the thread. We all draw the line somewhere, can there be a place for smaller, lighter, lower capacity firearms in personal protection, and how do you evaluate your use of such weapons?

I carry the biggest gun I can reasonably conceal based on my dress requirements.

Ruger LC9, Glock 26, Gock 19. I don't carry a Glock 17 because in Colorado I'm limited to a 15 round magazine.

 

[JERRY]

I carry the biggest gun I can reasonably conceal based on my dress requirements.

Ruger LC9, Glock 26, Gock 19. I don't carry a Glock 17 because in Colorado I'm limited to a 15 round magazine.

what?! when did this bologna happen?

 

[Trunk Monkey]

what?! when did this bologna happen?

Approximately 7 YEARS ago

 

[JERRY]

Approximately 7 YEARS ago

sorry to hear that, of course I just realized that Colorado is a blue state.

 

[Kleanbore]

But I was.

You were "safe" only that you were not attacked. That's not really on topic. Hundreds of millions of people were "safe" yesterday,

would my safety have been impacted by carrying a .380, 5 shot revolver, 6 shot revolver, 9mm, 9mm with multiple reloads, or an AR 15?

Quite possibly, had you been threatened.

And how can you possibly evaluate my carry strategy?

If your strategy is to hope for the best, that can be discussed objectively.

You need to evaluate the threats you face, and prepare accordingly.

One cannot "evaluate threats" before they materialize.

That's the real point of this discussion.

 

[Thibaut]

My grab and go gun is a Taurus PT22-8+1. I know that it is essentially a plink and varmint shooter but it has proved to be dependable and accurate and a good pointer. It is easy for me to conceal and easy for me to load/unload the tilt barrel for make-ready shooting. I am waiting to receive a Beretta Tomcat .32 acp. It might replace the PT22. We shall see.

 

[Trunk Monkey]

My grab and go gun is a Taurus PT22-8+1. I know that it is essentially a plink and varmint shooter but it has proved to be dependable and accurate and a good pointer. It is easy for me to conceal and easy for me to load/unload the tilt barrel for make-ready shooting. I am waiting to receive a Beretta Tomcat .32 acp. It might replace the PT22. We shall see.

Taurus handguns have a longstanding bad reputation. To the point that many gun stores don't carry them at all. Their reputation is not just an Internet myth I would never carry a Taurus for self defense.

 

[JERRY]

My grab and go gun is a Taurus PT22-8+1. I know that it is essentially a plink and varmint shooter but it has proved to be dependable and accurate and a good pointer. It is easy for me to conceal and easy for me to load/unload the tilt barrel for make-ready shooting. I am waiting to receive a Beretta Tomcat .32 acp. It might replace the PT22. We shall see.

you'd be better served by a centerfire semiauto over a rimfire semiauto. that said, watch out for the Tomcat .32 frame cracking at the trigger pin hole on the right side of the frame.

 

[Armybrat]

Lcp. All day long.

Same

 

[Old Dog]

that said, watch out for the Tomcat .32 frame cracking at the trigger pin hole on the right side of the frame.

Old, old issue. Long fixed by Beretta.

 

[jar]

you'd be better served by a centerfire semiauto over a rimfire semiauto. that said, watch out for the Tomcat .32 frame cracking at the trigger pin hole on the right side of the frame.

My recently made (2019) Tomcat did not even come with the insert on recommended ftlbs ammo. The only mention is that factory standard ammo is suggested.

 

[JERRY]

Old, old issue. Long fixed by Beretta.

how so? the frames were still cracking when they started using the bigger, heavier, thicker slide. what did they do to the frame to fix the frame issue, because slowing the slide by making it a lot bigger didn't do it?

 

[JERRY]

My recently made (2019) Tomcat did not even come with the insert on recommended ftlbs ammo. The only mention is that factory standard ammo is suggested.

reading between the lines, do not fire boutique ammo in it.

 

[jar]

reading between the lines, do not fire boutique ammo in it.

I looked really closely and could not find anything written between the lines.

 

[Trunk Monkey]

Old Dog brings up a good point. They call convenience stores "Stop &Robs" for a reason.

I am in Colorado Springs. As I type this it is just after midnight. I promise you that by 4AM there will have been at least 3 convenience store robberies. Sometimes the robber will pick a street and go down it robbing them one after the other.

I quit shopping in convenience stores (except for gas) probably 20 years ago but that was more to save money than mitigate my risk.

Having said all that, I only have one gun that isn't 9 mm and it's a 40 Smith & Wesson so I'm not going to be carrying a sub caliber gun anyway but if I was 7-Eleven would not be the place

FWIW

The night I posted this someone started at 4AM at Fountain and Jet Wing and hit five 7-11s in a row moving West on Fountain Boulevard.

I know my town

 

[Old Dog]

So my take-away from this thread is that, for the most part, a large portion of our membership here still favors the concept of a small, light, low-capacity handgun as a "grab'n'go" gun when they are being lazy, just wanting to throw something in a pocket for that quick trip to the mailbox, convenience store or while walking Spot or Rover down the road.

As I am a firm believer in Murphy's Law and its off-shoots (i.e., trouble ALWAYS comes out of nowhere when and where one least expects it), I emphatically denounce this practice. Already related my dog-walking story. Residents of my area know how many shootings and home invasions that have occurred in the South Sound over the past couple years.

Another example: a few weeks ago, I went out to check my mailbox on a rainy (surprise, surprise) Saturday afternoon. An extremely scruff-looking 30-something couple, both males wearing backpacks (hmm, to go for a walk down my dead-end road?) are walking toward the end of my road. Now, my drive is some 200 yards long and my house barely visible from the road through the trees, with a horse pasture and acreage across from me. Tall guy is wearing a hood (not a crime, I know) but seems to have the bad skin and hair characteristic of a long-term tweaker.

"Hey man, can you spare some cash? Our car broke down?" Seriously? This while he tossed a lit cigarette butt down right in front of my mailbox ("A--hole," I thought.) His partner is most definitely tweaking; eyes are all over, he can't control his hands, keeps shifting his weight, moving his feet and the head is twitching while he keeps licking his lips. Now, I've dealt with a few hundred meth addicts in my time and I know first-hand how unpredictable their behavior can be.

"I'm sorry, but no. Is there anything else I can do for you, and why are you walking down a dead-end road?"

Guy cops an attitude, "Hey bro, I don't need you f-ing hassling me." Radiating hostility, looks to be considering his odds against the gray-haired geezer twice his age.

"I am not your bro." Now he's most definitely sizing me up and attempting to intimidate me. Both purposely brush around and past me, invading my bubble, one makes a point of stomping in a mud puddle. Now, I know almost all of the thirty or so families on my two-mile long road. I elected not to check my mailbox (which is one of the large locking vaulted one) so they wouldn't see which one of the four on the bank I went to and then purposely walked up the neighbor's drive until I saw them get down the road a ways. Walked back home, got in the truck to cruise down to the end of the road and see where these two went, but apparently they veered off into forty acres of woods a few hundred yards from my property. On Monday, saw the reports of an attempted burglary over the weekend a few residences down the road from mine, apparently scared off by an alarm system. No one caught. Shame, wish they'd tried the house of the guy with the two Dobermans or even the family with the schizoid pit bull that keeps getting loose.

Hey, and I live in a "good neighborhood." But then again, that's where the bad people go to do bad things (how many burglaries do you read about in trailer parks?).

 

[jar]

So my take-away from this thread is that, for the most part, a large portion of our membership here still favors the concept of a small, light, low-capacity handgun as a "grab'n'go" gun that they have confidence in being able use to place multiple rounds on target rapidly even under stressful conditions, whether for that quick trip to the mailbox, convenience store or while walking Spot or Rover down the road.

 

[Kleanbore]

So my take-away from this thread is that, for the most part, a large portion of our membership here still favors the concept of a small, light, low-capacity handgun as a "grab'n'go" gun that they have confidence in being able use to place multiple rounds on target rapidly even under stressful conditions, whether for that quick trip to the mailbox, convenience store or while walking Spot or Rover down the road.

I don't take it that way.

Rather, it seems that many people believe, for some reason, that if the likelihood of needing a gun is reduced, the effectiveness that will be required should the need arise will somehow be lower.