Dusty44

This is North Texas. Garland Shooting range, outdoor, is very nice, 100 yd rifle range with targets at 50 & 100 yds; pistol range; shotgun area used for trap/skeet (?) (I don't do shotguns even though I own a couple). $10 a visit even if it is all day and a bunch of guns. Bullet Trap in Plano. Never been there to shoot. Don't like indoor much and all the indoor ranges seem really pricey. Bullet Trap may not be nearly as expensive (no promises) as many that appear to have rules like 'one (hand)gun, 50 rounds & buy the (required factory) ammo from us, drop $100, don't let the door hit you in the %%## on the way out after you shoot.' My medical problems are apparently wrapping up their gig, may be able to do some shooting again this summer. It has been a year. Heard Garland Shooting Range was in a lawsuit; hope they are still there.

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It has been several days since your post. I will try to offer some ideas. I have not bought ammo or components in a long time. My first place to look is MidwayUSA.com. A lot of options in brands and prices. Subscribe to the on-line offerings and also ask for the (printed on paper) newsletter. Cabella's is high on my list; I am close enough that it is more fun to go there and buy 'in person.' Both components and loaded ammo. And a whole lot of other stuff. CheaperThanDirt on-line for factory ammo of many kinds. I buy on-line and 'in person' at their stores. Bullets from Midway can be a surprise. I bought some repackaged .308 bullets that I am reasonably sure are Hornady. They may be rejects from the production line but they make holes in the target about as close together as I am capable of encouraging. I think only about non-FMJ because my shooting range forbids FMJ. The source companies listed also offer FMJ of many kinds. If you want accuracy, I personally have the most faith in anything from about 147 grain up to 180 grain. Optimum seems to be, from what I read in the shooting forums and some gun magazines, 165 gr or 168 gr BTHP to about 175 gr. I think your 210 gr bullets are too heavy for the 308 Win/7.62 NATO. Anything much over 190 gr probably should only be used in something like one of the magnum calibers or possibly in the 30-06. I shoot some Russian 308 Win steel-cased soft-point 140 gr. This stuff does reasonably well from my Rem 700 and Savage model 11 bolt guns but at 100 yards 10 rounds from the DPMS make a pattern that is difficult to hide with the palm of my hand. I bought the Russian ammo because there was a lot of it in the carton and it was cheap. I use it to warm up my rifles. A box of 100 bullets is not a lot. My own stack of boxes of 308 bullets are Sierra 165 gr BTHP & 175 gr BTHP, Midway repack 180 gr BT Bonded Spitzer (red plastic tip). The Sierra bullets are an excellent brand and not excessively expensive. Midway has lots of things on sale all the time. Keep a watch. CTD is good for loaded ammo, keep another watch. Easy to buy and shoot a box of factory ammo just to see what a bullet weight does. Then you get to try and make your own loads live up to that. CTD has brands of (cheaper) reloaded once-fired to try. Some folks swear by this stuff; some, of course, swear at it. But the ones that don't like the factory reloads only say that it leaves their guns dirty. That would be because of the powder used. But the accuracy seems to be excellent. There is a small gunshop nearby. I noted that usually their prices are the same as the big companies for the same brands and items. Most of my powder and primers and sometimes bullets are bought there. Trade the cost of gasoline for the cost of shipping.

Apparently Mossberg has a new bolt-action rifle chambered for the .223 Remington that uses standard military AR magazines. Would like to see pictures, details and specs, prices, when available in the gun shops? Reference: "Empty Cases" Blog.

Maybe you need to do some reloading for your existing rifles before you buy more parts. It will give you perspective. There are probably thousands of calibers in all kinds of bullet designs, case shapes, case lengths. If you are really looking toward the future, the calibers that will be available are going to be the NATO and Russian standards. Start with those. Buy a Lee Loader. Cheap, makes serious quality ammo with no unnecessary support equipment. Buy a Lee beam scale for measuring powder and a rubber/plastic hammer, an electronic caliper. Lee makes a small "nutcracker" press to back up the "Loader." Sierra and Lyman loading manuals to start. Look at load data from sites on the web but never trust them. Buy some 'How To' manuals and read them thoroughly. I load some and buy some. FMJ is forbidden on every range I know about. Not a factor if you shoot on private land, but needs be kept in mind. I buy guns chambered for common calibers: 308 Win which will also shoot 7.62 NATO, but not the other way around. Lots of data and powders and other components and equipment for this one. 223 ammo is available easily in soft point and hollow point, I do not own a rifle chambered for this caliber. Next personal favorite is 44 Rem Mag: I shoot a lever gun and a revolver but factory ammo is often difficult to find and there is really nothing for my lever gun. Components can be difficult to find and are expensive. The lever gun is very picky about what goes through the tube. This kind of problem will appear in a lot of guns and calibers. I find that reloading is essential for this one rifle and load data is not really available for the components that work best. It is an uncomfortable situation. If you want heavier calibers try 300 RM or even one of the .416 offerings. The "right" .416 might not yet be apparent. The original was the Rigby but apparently Jefferys created a cartridge that works as well or better and is a lot more common in places where this kind of firepower is really necessary (Professional African big game hunters). Our military is using 300 RM. What are you going to shoot? Or maybe you are thinking of long-range competition? You need a lot of basic shooting practice first. My own tendencies are moving more toward something like the 22-250 because apparently there are a lot of rifles chambered for it in North America and ammo is available along with reloading support. Still checking on all that before I spend money. If you want to try an exercise in frustration and personal education, buy a Ruger 10-22 carbine. Mine will shoot under an inch at 50 yards. Factory stock, Wal Mart bubble pak scope, much less than $100 in bits and pieces added. Maybe even including that scope: I forget, it has been a couple of years. The gun gurus say that it does not matter what you shoot, the skills are the same and the 22 Long Rifle cartridge is one of the lowest priced. My personal shooting skills benefitted greatly from a few years and and several hundred rounds of 50 cal Black Powder: a Thompson/Center Hawken. Maybe a quality In-Line BP would be better now for use with BP substitutes. I really do not know. But every load is a "handload!" An excellent (IMO) shooting trainer and accuracy improver is a small cheap water pistol. 100% safe right up front. Teach your hand(s) to hold it easily and to pull that 'trigger' plunger straight so the little gun stays straight and on-target. Amazing how much that can help any shooting you do! I shoot 9 MM and 45 ACP because they are common calibers and are available. So is the 38 Special and 357 Mag for my revolvers (other than the 44 RM). Some pistol ammo is touted but a (very good) gun shop laughed and said they had never even actually seen a box of "that caliber" ammo once, when asked. Think about it. One of my bolt rifles is in 7 MM RM. Factory ammo is frightfully expensive and often difficult to find. I could not shoot it as often as I want without reloading, and I do not shoot it often even so but usually concentrate on other rifles and calibers. I know you are wondering where I live that I cannot find this stuff. The answer is a remote part of the universe called, in the local vernacular at least, North Texas. I do my gun and ammo shopping at places like CheaperThanDirt, Ft Worth & McKinney; Cabella's Ft Worth; two local small but excellent gun shops; mail order from MidwayUSA, Brownell's, The Sportsman's Guide. Sometimes mail order from other places or go to one of the local gun shows. The bottom line is of course to do your own serious research, do a lot of thinking and some soul searching, and make yourself happy.

The stock market analysts and traders (blogs) say that many of the most critical high-tech (a lot of critical electronic components) parts were being made in the parts of Japan that were flooded or where the electrical supply and infrastructure is most damaged. Cannot run a factory where there is no running water or sewage. Not just in the factory but in the surrounding area. The population is also forced to relocate until the damage is repaired, no workers for the factories. As parts become unavailable, many other factories in places like Taiwan and China will be forced to halt production. The effect will take time, but eventually a lot of products will be unavailable or more expensive or both. No repair parts, either. Think in terms of a supply crunch for the US starting in late summer and extending 6 to 12 months at least and in some cases indefinitely. There is a thread of thought that some industry will relocate somewhere not in Japan and take skilled workforce along. Reduce exposure to earthquakes and tsunami's; complete rebuild of housing and infrastructure would be no more expensive than in Japan and maybe cheaper even with relocation of the workforce. No details or other information; may just be an idea within some corporate management that may or may not be possible. None of this is 'for sure.' Watch and see how it all plays out?

I do not do any competitive shooting. I have a bad knee and cannot move quickly or get into a lot of positions for shooting. I just stand (pistol) or curl up on the bench (rifle) and enjoy trying to coax the bullets to all go through one hole in the target. Cowboy Action has influenced recent gun purchases. I did load some BP-sub ammo for my 44RM and loved all the smoke. Something right out of the movies! Then I read an article on-line about shooting BP loads from pistols that essentially matched the ones from the old West: caliber and barrel length, powder charges and bullets matched to loadings measured from dissassembly of original cartridges from the late 1800's. The article compared results of current offerings with antique loading equivalents for BP and similar bullet weights for newer cartridges when shooting into a target made of a box with 1" wood boards spaced 1" apart. Calibers were 36-38 and 44-45 including 38 Special, 357 mag, 45 ACP, 45 LC, 44 RM. In each case the BP rounds (1870's bullet designs) matched and usually slightly exceeded modern cartridges in terms of penetration into or damage to the last board as well as total number of boards penetrated. All I remember is a loading for the SAA in 45 caliber that lodged in the 12th board. The equivalent (bullet weight and manufacturer's listed MV) smokeless powder load left a dent in the 12th board. All that got me back to Black Powder again. I have found trying to shoot front-stuffer rifles on a range operated for benefit of cartridge rifles to be an exercise in frustration. By the time the rifle is loaded all the other shooters are ready to go downrange to check targets. After the first shot, it is one shot per hour or less because of the conflict in the needs of serving the BP rifle v.s. the time required for cartridge rifles and range-safe time. Even at one shot per hour, often I was 'just' loaded and ready to shoot when the range safety officer was tapping me impatiently on the shoulder to clear the bench. There is only one way to unload a front-stuffer and I was always rushed. Decades ago I had a private shooting range in a big gully on a friend's farm. Shooting BP did my technique a lot of good. A lot of practice, a lot of experimenting (every shot is a handload!!), but time changes many things? Now I shoot mostly cartridge guns, and maybe now more of them in Black Powder? After watching "True Grit 2" I am thinking about a reproduction Sharps Rifle?

Synthetic stocks are cheaper to make, less subject to dimensional changes. The kids always think the newest things are the best. ("How could those old folks possibly know what I just learned in school today?") Some of it is fads, sometimes it is what they saw first. Wait a few decades until the synthetics start to degrade as the chemistry of the plastics breaks down or warps from long exposure to hot storage units, or whatever. If the price of oil rises as much as is probable, wood will again be the material of choice and quality older wood stocks will be revered.

I think it took about 3 weeks for the Eagle Grips wood grips to arrive. Rosewood, very pretty, checkering very sharp and clean. My only complaint is one all of you will understand. The wood grips are so nice I want to try a set of the buffalo horn grips in the same design. That of course will require another New Vaquero. I am thinking maybe a 6 inch (or whatever that length is: the medium length that Ruger offers) in 45 LC and load Black Powder (substitutes) to keep the SAA and Buffalo Horn grips in context. Real Black Powder is too hard to come by in Texas. Zoning ordinances limit possession to 2 pounds almost everywhere and retail sales locations are very few and far between, at least here in North Texas. I use my existing supply with extreme care. Mostly I feel forced to use the BP as primer for the Hawkens, load tubes with 5 grains in the marked end of the tube and the rest of the charge using whatever sub on top. That works. Not using the BP primer results in innumerable misfires. Having the powder charges carefully pre-measured is nice also at the range. Ignition is not a problem of course in the in-line rifle; not a problem using BP subs in the revolver cartridges (44 RM, 357 Mag) over magnum primers. The 45 LC bullets will also have to be specialized for use with BP lubes, and more-- - - AHhhh. . . . Whenever budget permits!

Texas is one of the states with "Castle Doctrine." That usually covers the homeowner or resident for criminal charges. There seems to always be a survivor of the perp/intruder who files civil charges?

Retirement has its drawbacks. I walked out the door of the plant on the last day of May, 2008. So far: This is the longest long weekend I've ever experienced. I feel like a college kid on a long, long summer sabbatical; thankfully my (rich parents?) manage to keep putting more money in my bank account everytime I am about to run dry. All those paid holidays? No extra pay!!! And NO days OFF!!!!

I have been looking for a set of wood grips for my Ruger New Vaquero with very little success. A Google Search only found offerings that were too pricey :o for my blood. Today I called Brownell's on the phone. I never manage to do well with most on-line catalogues and Brownell's is no exception. Brownell's referred me to Eagle Grips, EagleGrips.com, and it took about 3 seconds to find a set of grips I liked. A quick phone call, and the grips are on the way. I had a tight budget limit in mind and spent much more ??? than that but way below the prices of the custom offerings I have seen elsewhere. Next is to see if the new 'Gunfighter' grips really do work better than the factory grips?

Some quick answers: 308 Win has higher pressures than the military 7.62x51. Use military ammo in a 308 Win but maybe not 308 Win in a military chambered rifle. Check out use of FMJ at your range; my range forbids any FMJ rifle ammo. Scope: 3-9 or 4-12 x about 40? See what MidwayUSA has on sale. My DPMS is wearing a Nikon 6-18x40 with Mildot reticule because I had recently talked with the Nikon reps at a gun/outdoor show and this scope was on sale at MidwayUSA. I do not like the BDC stuff because I prefer my own handloads and the BDC has too much busywork in there for me. Tip-off scope mounts, low; the rear bell of the scope barely clears the rail. Iron sights: I have backup flip-up Chinese-made iron sights. The front one is flipped down and torqued in place. The rear one is available if needed. There are no rules. I used Forstner bits in a hand drill to modify a Limbsaver recoil pad (mounting holes and air pressure relief) (added a 1/2 inch to length of pull. Feels better to me) because I personally see no reason to put up with recoil. I have a (Brownell's) CAA grip that fits my hand just right. Replaced the trigger, that is all posted somewhere here :). The rest of my rifle is all factory original. I shoot off sandbags at my range. I have a Bog Pod shooting stick (6 inches up to about 2 1/2 feet (?), can be easily set for one or two legs or tripod- it was on sale. . . ) if ever needed. Build a second upper for a different barrel or whatever reason. Have fun with your rifle! If I may borrow part of the motto of PredatorXtreme: Shoot Straight, Apologize To No One!

My Colt came as a 38 Super. Ammunition a few years ago was so difficult to find that I researched a comment hanging by a thread of memory and found parts or a kit for changing an M1911 to 9MM listed at Impact Guns which I bought. Just before Christmas, 2010, and again a week ago I was in several places that sell ammo and have not seen any 38 Super for sale, again. I have bought and have on hand a few boxes bought when I did see them. 9 MM ammo is of course readily available and I have a lot of it bought before ammo became scarce (and expensive). When the package of 9 MM parts arrived the plastic bags carried Brownell's labels and were shipped directly from Brownell's. I had been unable to find any reference at Brownell's when I was looking for a source. I had researched the forums and read a lot of commentary in forums dated a good while back. Parts are fairly easy. Barrel, link, link pin (I had to order them separately but they arrived assembled), spring and bushing. The barrel was slightly oversized externally so it could be made to fit properly. The rest of the parts drop in. I had a gunsmith fit the barrel but I think it would not have been beyond my capabilities if that had been necessary. A magazine is required for each caliber. The 9 MM might work in a 38 Super magazine but it is better to have a magazine with the spacer at the back for the 9 MM just to be sure. The old postings spoke of some guns that would shoot 9 MM very well with the 38 Super mags and some where it was a lost cause. Some would work with the same extractors, some not. My Colt needed a little tweaking of the extractor. So one person said all he had to do was field strip and reassemble with the appropriate parts and could shoot 38 Super and 9 MM at will with no problems ever with the 38 Super mag. Others said they could do that after having a gunsmith tweak the extractor and then sometimes the 38 Super mags worked and sometimes not. It seems to depend on the gun. I think I recall that the 45 ACP needs a different extractor used that will not work with the smaller cartridges, or the other way around, or both? I found a reference in those old postings for a shop manual for the M1911, author Jerry Kuhnhausen, indicating that Amazon had it for sale. I tried Amazon, Borders, Barnes & Noble and drew a blank. Last summer (2010) I was idly looking through a list of books for sale and buying a few for general reading. One book was listed only as "The M1911/M1911A1 Pistols." I added it to my shopping list thinking it was a historical review of these guns. When it arrived I was floored by the realization that it was a copy of Jerry Kuhnhausen's book. The entire title and reference is: "The U.S. M1911/M1911A1 Pistols & commercial M1911 type pistols A Shop Manual- Volume 2 in the Kuhnhausen .45 Auto Series;" Author: Jerry Kuhnhausen; Copyright 1997; "A Heritage - VSP Shop Manual;" "Published and Distributed by Heritage Gun Books." Paperback. This is a very serious technical book. Anything anyone ever needed to know about an M1911 is almost certainly in there. I do not remember where I did buy the manual. It may be that I was trying to find it by a wrong title and by an ISBN number that does not seem to appear on the copy I have. Author's name did not work. Maybe I bought it from Safari, I do not now know. And it may have been in a list of closeouts? If you want a copy, all I can do is wish you and all others who might be interested luck.

A week before Christmas I visited CheaperThanDirt in Ft Worth. I wanted to just get a real-time first-person touchy-feely look at a Ruger "New Vaquero." The Redhawks and Blackhawks are too large for my hands to be comfortable with. CTD had New Vaquero's in both calibers and at least three different barrel lengths. I have planned to 'come back later' before and regretted it. I brought home a 4 5/8" 357 mag version. This revolver feels really good in my hand and the trigger is beautiful. In the last few days I loaded some new Remington brass with generic LSWC 158 gr and Cast Performance 160 gr LBT and (the Devil made me do it) the last ten rounds of the Cast Performance with genuine Goex Black Powder. I will post my impressions when it becomes possible to shoot this stuff and my impressions of the New Vaquero. I am still coping with the after effects of last summer's surgery. My Taurus PT 1911 (45 ACP) had problems holding on to magazines other that the two that came with it and would not easily release empty magazines nor would the slide (usually) lock open after a string of shots. I put a new Ed Brown slide lock into it (from Brownell's) and all the slides I have will now lock into place and release properly. I will have to wait until I can shoot again to see how the 'lock open' function for the slide works now. For the rest, the PT 1911 easily makes 2 inch groups at 25 yds if I am having a passable day. I am thinking about buying a 9 MM or else a 45 ACP that has both double action and will accept the conversion 9 MM parts that are in my Colt so that I can reconfigure the Colt (38 Super Auto) to factory original. I have too many rounds of 9 MM to forget about them but prefer to shoot 45 ACP. My impression of the 38 Super cartridge is that it should be the 'go to' for all in need of a semi-auto with serious power instead of having been left largely on the dusty shelves of history. I once had the opportunity to shoot a friend's Glock in 9 MM side-by-side with the Colt shooting 38 Super Auto. The Colt gave the impression of a serious magnum 9 MM. Feel of recoil about half way between the 9 MM and the 45 ACP. Anyone who does not know the capabilities of the 38 Super should research it. It is a great cartridge and seemingly would be able to do anything the '9' & '10' metric cartridges can do and maybe better with a little work on bullets and powders. Of course, most 38 Super aficionados think that way!

Awwww_____________ . Everybody knows that the meat in the display cases at the supermarket is made by Du Pont and Dow Chemical from "renewable resources."

This is an old thread but it is winter again. There have been many reports of people trapped on highways by snow-- again. I would like to add food and drink to the list of emergency gear, primarily for vehicles. Something I have been made aware of since the earlier posts is high protein foods of minimal size. "Insure*" is liquid in small bottles with at least 9 grams of protein in each bottle. That is a survival meal. "Kellogg's Special K*" includes similar bottles of liquid and food bars that look like candy bars but contain 10 grams of protein; Kroger* grocery stores sell a store brand called "Fortify*" of the little bottles of liquid with 9 to 13 grams of protein. The little bottles come in packs of 4 or 6 or more and each bottle is about 8 fl oz. The food bars are in boxes of about 6 and weigh about 1.6 oz each. This stuff is not candy or "trail mix" which seems to be mostly sugar. For winter traveling it would just be too easy to keep a box or two of the bars in (each?) vehicle and/or a pack of the liquid version as emergency food against being trapped in snow or ice. It could also be easy to include a few bars or a couple of bottles in a trail or hunting pack as a snack or as part of other regular food? A pack of bottled water is a no-brainer of course, but I prefer green tea for the flavor. "Diet" is my choice so the sugars in sweetened liquids do not add unnecessarily to thirst. * = copyrighted brand names.

On Dec 6 or 7 MidwayUSA published an ad mentioning a Hornady reloading manual (8Th edition) and I sent them an order for it in the middle of an afternoon because there was not already a copy in my collection. They Promised 6 days and did it to me AGAIN. I count on those delivery times: BUT 30 HOURS later it was on my porch! Ground! From the wilds of Missouri to the prairies of North Texas, HOW QUICK? For reference, a package from across town took 7 days and arrived on the same truck! Sportsman's Guide and Duluth Trading (Long Tail T-Shirts*[copyrighted]) take, usually, 10-14 days; LL Bean takes about 4 days with stops in NYC and other places from what is often strange routing across the Rust Belt or sometimes through the Deep South? Winter weather is understandable but most of my shipments are en route in summertime. Maybe the real question should be: "What is going on with UPS on the northern reaches of I-35?" The Hornady manual has some new numbers to contemplate about grains of powder. I had hoped there would be something about their new powders for 308 Win and mostly for the 44 Rem Mag. I really want a load that will work for both the Marlin 1894 and the 4 inch S&W with the Cast Performance 300 grain bullet (For hunting. For fun the 240 gr SWC's and 8 grains of Unique?). The S&W 44 cal revolver got a fiber optic front sight, EGW blade with red dot. Put black Sharpie ink on the front so the gun is black from the front. The intensity of the red dot is fantastic. Tried looking at it outdoors with shooting glasses and got that quick and easy aiming at all angles of light and all times of day into deep twilight. In near dark the red dot still glows and is easy to tell aim just by where the black rear sight does or does not blank out the dot. In any case, no more shooting and certainly no hunting this year. I mentioned already about a belly ache in July that became an emergency appendectomy. During the first few days of November the incision wound that was taking its own time healing became infected (again) and I spent the month in hospital enjoying a constant drip of super power IV antibiotic. It is not over, but the infection is gone and I am home again and back to doing a little reloading for tests when it becomes practical again. It was a lesson to be in a place where my tendency to feel like a grandpa to Father Time got kicked in the butt. Most of the patients were both a whole lot older and a whole lot sicker than I have ever been. Worth burning a candle for them and all the others like them. Trying to decide about a .223 or fill in the collection of handguns with a SAA or maybe an 1861 Army? Whatever. Time to pursue that after the start of the New Year. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of you!

Something to read- - - everyday? Try theoutdoorwire.com. Brownell's suggested it in their regular missive sometime back and I think it is worth checking out.

This morning I was doing essential business and the route home 'just happened' to pass my favorite gunshop. I was absolutely amazed to see a collection of revolvers in the cases again. Seasonal? One Taurus Judge, several Blackhawks including one in 44 Mag, other single-action revolvers including a couple of Uberti "Outlaws." Still some used 357's but not as many. Mostly bolt action rifles and a big selection of shotguns in the racks behind the cases today and very few AR style rifles in any caliber. Had to be a change of merchandise on display. They could hardly have sold all the AR's that were lined up a few weeks ago? It was interesting to see about twenty different 380 semi-autos very prominent on a top shelf, itty-bitty up to just small. I wonder about the comments that 9MM is not enough if the situation is serious--- but the 380 is less potent than 9MM? Maybe better with a little 22LR for self defense carry than a 380? Just a rhetorical question: I know that thousands of pages of magazine articles have been wasted on the subject!

I think all the gunshops I have visited had some of those Taurus 'Judge' revolvers. They serve a purpose but I want my own guns to be better suited to target shooting and sometimes for backup when hunting. I had forgotten about the Taurus offerings. I do know there were no Taurus PT 1911's in the displays on my last trip.

Whatever happened to revolvers? Two or three years ago the gunshop cases were full of revolvers. Half, maybe two-thirds of the handguns for sale were revolvers. Now there is not one single new revolver in the cases. On a visit in mid-September one major gun store in my area had perhaps as many as somewhere between one hundred and two hundred handguns, every one is a semi-auto. My favorite small gunshop had a collection of used / pre-owned revolvers in 357 and 38 or 22 but that is all. Their 'new' handguns are all semi-autos. There have not been any revolvers in any of the major-name gun and sporting goods stores to my knowledge since late spring at least. Ammo for 357 and 44 Mag is appearing again but the price is shocking, even higher than last year and the bullet weights are all very light, at least for what I have seen on the shelves. It is beginning to look like a paraphrase from Henry Ford: "You can have any kind or caliber of handgun you want just so long as it is a semi-auto in 9MM."

Problems that were most likely related to this event have been happening for several years. I was lucky that it got taken care of before the thing burst. My primary doctor was getting ready to do an MRI in the near future to check it out; push just came to shove before we came around to that.

I have been out of the loop for a few weeks. The last week of July, a Sunday night, started off with a belly ache that became an Emergency Appendectomy about 2 AM on that Wednesday morning. Another untoward possibility crossed off the list? I only wonder how many more there are that I do not know about or have not considered? I made a post about the white square insert on the front blade/ramp of my new S&W. That is not true but is a distinction without a real difference. The insert is orange. At the shooting range with bright sunlight on the gun and sunglass shooting glasses, the little orange square is a white glow that is barely discernable against the glare. While I was out you have answered my next question about better sights. Thank you for all the new posts to this thread. As soon as I am mobile again, maybe near the end of this month or into September I will have a red fiber-optic front sight blade installed. That will put, hopefully, a red dot inside the black square notch of the rear sight. The rear blade notch is outlined in white but in practice on the range in those lighting conditions the white line is lost. I think I will align the sights so that the red dot, when in that square notch, covers the intended point of impact at 25 yards. Please give me your opinions? This is not my own idea, mostly it came from an article in "G&A Handguns" for Oct/Nov 2010.

Since the post about the RRA trigger I found a note within my records that says the trigger pull is supposed to be 3.5 pounds. Whatever. It is a very nice trigger.