A Review Retrospective
Have you ever bought something and immediately loved it? Then, after more and more time using it, you start to notice little issues with it here and there. Initially, they’re just filed away in your brain under the “huh, that’s weird” category. Eventually those little issues either get more and more annoying or you start noticing glaring problems. After enough time, the honeymoon is over and that thing you initially loved turns out to be a festering hunk of crap. No, I’m not talking about my first marriage. I’m talking about the guns we’ve reviewed here at Gun Noob. Actually, let me clarify that a bit: I’m going over the guns that I’ve personally reviewed. Some of the guns were reviewed by other writers who have since moved on so I can’t realistically give an update on those.
So with over two year’s worth of gun reviews let’s look back and see my thoughts on those guns after two years. Memory lane time!
Still love it. Still own it…kind of. You see, the wife fell in love with it and now it’s one of her guns. I’ve since replaced it in my collection with the FNS-9.
I still stand by this gun…and the wife has confiscated this gun for her collection as well. Frankly, I’m glad she loves it as much as I do. It was the looks of this gun that convinced her to go shooting with me and got her addicted to shooting as well.
Great gun, hated shooting it. Keep in mind, I’m still quite recoil sensitive even to this day. Back when I was starting out, I was even more so. I wound up trading it for Ruger’s LC9. Speaking of the LC9…
I carried this gun for a long time. Ultimately, I wound up trading it for the Springfield XDs 45. Would I buy another LC9? Probably not. Not saying it’s a bad gun, mind you. I’ve just learned better what I like in a carry pistol and the LC9 no longer fits my preferences.
This gun was my range toy for the longest time. As of late (2 years of lots of use), it’s started malfunctioning more and more. Granted, the .22LR ammo I’ve been putting through it is probably the worst quality ammo I’ve ever owned so I’m holding off on final judgement for now until I get some better food for this one. In the meantime, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit frustrated at the moment.
I opted not to write a review on the one I tested because it was in horrible condition which led to having a horrible experience with it. Since then, I haven’t been able to get my hands on a factory original M&P to test out. I have shot quite a few but every one of them was either really tricked out or had the seemingly required aftermarket trigger kit installed. Seriously, S&W, if everyone just buys your gun then immediately buys an Apex trigger kit for it, maybe you should think about buying Apex and integrating their trigger design into your gun. Food for thought. Until this, this gun still remains unreviewed.
The first perfect score ever issued and I still believe it earned it. I have fired this gun so many times but I have yet to purchase one. I just can’t justify another pistol as I don’t compete and I have a lot of other pistols. So at the moment, this gun, as well as the rest of the XDm line are my go to recommendation when someone asks “what gun should I get for my first one?”
I’ve gotten so much hate mail about this review. The message usually fall into one of two categories. You have your “lol Glox r much better ur stoopid” crowd who believe that if a gun isn’t at least $600 and used by multiple militaries around the world then it’s a piece of crap and anyone who thinks otherwise is an idiot that will never be an operator. You also have your Hi-Point fanboyz who think that I’m part of the first group because I didn’t give the gun a perfect score. I don’t think I’ve ever written a more divisive review. The only thing I’ve ever written that got more hate was the “your gun is bad and you should feel bad” article a couple months ago. Side note: I still own this gun and I still stand by it.
This was loaned to me by a family member for review and he still owns it. I’ve fired it quite a few times and, when it came to get a carry pistol for Mrs. Noob, I got a P238 for her. This is, by far, one of the best carry pistols ever built.
Like I said, I traded my LC9 for this gun and I still carry it to this day. Same size and capacity as the LC9 except with .45 instead of 9mm. Oddly enough, not as much felt recoil to me. The big difference it that it’s a bit heavier. That’s a win/win in my book. I admittedly swap between this and a Taurus TCP depending on my outfit, however, so it’s not my only carry gun.
With a shotgun this cheap and this good, it’s pointless to not fiddle with it. I’ve taken advantage of the “exactly like a Mossberg 500 except different” design and have added some nice accessories since the review. I still call this one of the best home defense, bang for the buck shotguns.
Much like the Hi-Point, Taurus is one of those brands that brings out the hate. While I’ll admit their customer service and quality control has been spotty over the years, when they work they work great. This gun, after many many many rounds, has not given me a single problem. I’ve seen others (some of them commenting here) that their gun fails constantly. Now, is it a case of Tiny Gun Syndrome or is there something wrong with the pistol itself? Who knows. There seems to be just as much praise for Taurus as there is hatred. That’s why I always say “your mileage may vary” when it comes to this brand. As I said, I carry this gun almost daily and only swap it out when I can carry the XDs with my choice of pants for that day. After all the shooting I’ve but the TCP through, I have no problem betting my life on mine.
I still shoot with it and still highly recommend this one for the “just getting started” or the “I’ll probably only shoot every now and then” skeet shooter. As I’ve been shooting clays more and more and getting better and better at it, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t looking for a better choice. That’s pretty much what I predicted in the original review so, yeah.
I’m an idiot but it worked out for the best. I published my glowing review of the gun before I talked price with the guy that was going to sell it to me. Much to my surprise, he changed his mind about selling it. Considering that the first thing I did was zero the sights, it probably explained why he was complaining about not being able to hit much with it. Either way, I would have gladly shelled out some cash for this thing. I eventually wound up getting a different revolver that I actually liked a bit better. That’s not to say I wouldn’t be happy as heck with this gun, mind you. I also learned a valuable lesson about price negotiation in the process.
When I want to carry a gun that isn’t a pocket pistol, I tuck this mamma jamma in my waistband (via a Dragon Holster). This is one of my absolute favorite guns and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. I might, in the near future, swap out the trigger itself for the style used with the non-short reset trigger. Now, I’m specifically talking about the bang switch that my booger hook rests on and not the mechanism behind it. I’m finding that this particular trigger sometimes gives me a blister on my trigger finger and this is a common problem among many P220 owners. A simple swap out fixes that problem.
I bring this gun to the range with me every time I go. I also carry it IWB on the days when I want a change from the P220. I’ve let others shoot it and everyone says the same thing: “wow, this is a lot better than I expected it to be!” Again, the Taurus rule of thumb applies here but it’s also made differently than their other guns. After all, a 1911 deserves a certain level of respect when it comes to the manufacturing.
Hands down one of the most fun guns I’ve ever shot. If the S&W caused me to change my mind about revolvers, the 627 made me fall in love with them. With the way this gun handles recoil, it’s a great gun for new shooters that are recoil sensitive. This is a fantastic gun and worth every penny.
Despite all the warnings in the manual, I cracked it open to see how it ticks. Fortunately, it didn’t destroy reality but it did tear open a hole in the fabric of space and time and, as a result, I have a dimensional rift in my video studio now and occasionally a chaos demon slips through. It’s made life a lot more interesting in the house to say the least and I’m getting a lot of good target practice in with all the slaughtering of ancient evil and such.
Now we’re getting into some of the more recent guns who’s polish may not have worn off as much. Still, I think they’re worth mentioning here….
Like I said earlier, this has replaced the Glock 19’s role in my arsenal. I plan on carrying it more in the near future and will be buying yet another Dragon Holster for it. Look for a more detailed follow-up in the retrospective next year.
I had already owned this rifle for a VERY long time before I did this review so the review was written from the “honeymoon is over” perspective. That being said, I would still recommend it for someone who just really doesn’t want a Ruger 10-22.
Cobray M11/9This was never done as an official Beginner Gun Review but was instead used to demonstrate the difference between a great gun and a crappy one. Every time I go shooting with a group of friends that are experienced in the way of the gun, I make a point to bring this one out. Every single person has said the same thing about it “this thing is terrible but I love it!”. It really does make you think about the question of “what makes a good gun?”. Yes, in terms of quality and shootability, this thing is a turd but if everyone smiles when they shoot it, how can you say it’s a bad gun?
There you have it! I’m going to start doing this kind of retrospective every year. I think, if nothing else, it would help me look at the way I do reviews and ultimately lead to better quality reviews in the future.
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