I always figured I could handle myself in a fight. Black belt, lots of martiall arts experience and a huge sword collection.
I have recently been diagnosed with MS, and it has hit me like a truck. I have grown steadily weaker and more unbalanced in the last 2 years that now I cannot even run away, as I use a walker.
This has given me much to think about. I live alone. I don’t care about being robbed, it’s just stuff. However, my personal safety being home all day and going out with an obvious handicapp has made me realize that I have to do something different for self protection.
So this past Wednesday I went to a range, rented several pistols and bought one that I can keep for home protection and when I get my concealed carry permit it will be on my person at all times.
I do enjoy shooting. I have shot with my friend’s guns many times, but this is the first gun I’ve ever bought myself.
I delivered prescription medications, including a fair amount of street desirable stuff, at night. I carried a 357 S & W and yes, i had a license. Currently the gun lives in a case on the top shelf (out of sight) of a closet.
Doors reasons 1-4. Plus, I like making things go boom. Then there is the collecting factor. I’m trying to amass an example of every type of Mauser ever issued, one per country. I’d also like a complete run of Lee-Enfields.
I own two Swedish Mausers which were used for deer hunting. If someone offered me $300 for the pair, I would sell them. I don’t feel the need to keep something I am not using anymore.
I own a .22 and a 20 gauge shotgun. I keep these because there is still a chance I may go small-game hunting.
I will keep my pellet gun because it has by far the most kills on it (pigeons and squirrels mostly and the occasional chipmunk), and because it is the most effective to use in town without causing others concern.
25 years ago, when I lived in Washington DC, I owned a sweet little Heckler and Koch squeeze-cock 9mm. Even though DC had the most restrictive gun laws in the country at that time, there were places no sensible person went unless they were packing. I saw more handguns in my 5 years in DC than in my 44 years everywhere else.
Grew up with them. At one time I had a 300 H&H magnum, a military .45 auto, a .22 Hi-Standard auto, a S&W .357, a J.C. Higgins .22 tube feed bolt action, a Stevens .22/.410 over/under, and a .12 ga Mossberg. I gave the 300 to my brother, and the three pistols got stranded at my ex-MIL’s house after she died and I divorced my ex. Still there, as far as I know :mad:. Still have the last three, the first of which was given me by my grandfather, the second by my brother when I was 12. The shotgun was my bear gun for Alaska boondock trips. I’m planning to give the first to two my grandson next month and am trying to unload (ha!) the shotgun.
I’ll probably buy a pistol for on-the-road protection this spring, since I CAN’T GET MY FUCKING HANDGUNS BACK.
I have 14 WWII era rifles. It’s something to collect that’s different from stamps. Shooting a high powered rifle is heaps of fun, if expensive- from a quarter around for 7.62X39 for my SKS-45 (Yes, it’s a WWII era, prototypes were used in the Battle of Berlin) to about a dollar a round for 7.55 Swiss. You kind of wonder what war stories they’d say if they could talk. Soviet Mosin-Nagant M38 was made at the height of the German invasion when they didn’t even care about taking the time to getting them milled smooth so you can bet it didn’t spend it’s life gaurding some supply depot in Karaganda. It’s kind of fun to think with my Soviet weapons to that they threatned to bury capitolism, and now some of their weapons were sold to the highest bidder. I have a federal collectors license so if I see something I like at a wholesaler I order it and UPS drops it off at my door. And it makes me feel safe to have a gun in the closet.
Don’t know about the rest of the country, but the .22 National Gallery Match is still alive & kicking here in MA. The league I’m in includes 9 or 10 clubs and about 20 teams. It is all red dot sights now.
Buy cowboy action shooting loads for the Ruger. SASS uses the lightest loads they can get away with for a variety of reasons. Not getting beat up when all you want is a little fun at the range is a perfectly valid reason for you to use them.
My club had a large, elaborate dedicated bullseye range on which we hosted matches for teams from a four state area. Last year, it got turned into another "combat"range. Glad to hear it is still popular in your area. I still shoot my iron sighted Ruger on the indoor range using a timer and bullseye targets. My eyes aren’t what they used to be, though, and I guess I’m going to put one of those dot thingies on it soon.
Rifles here. I’m a former competition shooter; and while I am long past my competition days, it is still fun to see if I still am as accurate as I once was. I’m not, but it’s fun to try.
The only gun I’ve owned is a .22 calibre given to me on my 13th birthday as a kind of rite of passage. With my friends, I helped reduce the gopher and rabbit populations considerably until a jackrabbit I shot went running off with one bloody hind leg flopping behind it. Except for one time at a range, it hasn’t been fired since then and that was a good 40 years ago.
I like guns. I’m good at hitting the little target. I would have a shooting range in my basement if it was legal.
I haven’t done it a lot in a long time, and it’s kind of amazing, given that I have pretty bad vision, just how good a shot I was.
I had a couple of guns, but I sold them and didn’t buy more because they were expensive and because I had young kids in the house for years and years. Also I have a fairly bad temper. I can’t really see myself shooting a person, but unfortunately at one point I could see myself pointing a gun at my husband and saying “We need to talk, and you will listen! Or else!” (It probably wouldn’t have worked out well.) Or some lady in the supermarket parking lot steals my space…
