Beginner Gun Reviews
Beginner Gun Review: Stoeger Condor Over/Under
For those that have been reading my site for a while, you might remember that I developed a love of skeet shooting after spending a day with Jacksonville University’s Shooting Team. For those that haven’t been reading long, go back and read the archives. I’m not joking. Go and read them. Admittedly, it’s not required but I could really use the page views.
Anyway, the preferred gun of choice for clays is the good ole over under style shotgun. These double barrel guns hold 2 shells and are accurate as can be. They also have almost no moving parts at all so, in theory, they should be way less money than pump action and semi-automatic shotguns, right? Continue reading
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Beginner Gun Review: Taurus 738 TCP
For the longest time, if you wanted a small gun to carry in your pocket your choice was the Walther PPK, a little .22LR folding revolver, a 2 shot derringer, a J-frame style revolver or a .25 caliber pistol that probably won’t work. While the PPK was the choice of James Bond, it’s also remarkably heavy. The .22LR folding revolvers are spotty in reliability due a combination of the .22LR round itself as well as shoddy craftsmanship. Plus, there’s a lot of fumbling involved before you can shoot it. The derringers have the same problem: too much fumbling. Combine that with only 2 rounds and a complicated reload process, they’re best reserved as a “last ditch effort” gun instead of primary defense. The J-frame revolvers good and reliable but those .38 special or .357 Magnum rounds hurt like the dickens in that little pistol and, personally, I’m not fond of revolvers. Don’t even get me started on those cheap .25 caliber pistols. While I’ve spoken at great lengths about my love of the .25 round, there hasn’t been a decent pistol made for it yet.
In the end, it was looking like pocket carry was a lost cause. In many ways, it was a niche market. Then, along came Ruger and their LCP. That gun captured the imagination of the consumer and suddenly every company out there was marketing their own .380 pocket pistols like crazy trying to keep up with consumer demand. You couldn’t open a magazine without seeing ad after ad about some company’s tiny gun. Continue reading
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Beginner Gun Review: Maverick 88 Defense Shotgun
There is some significant debate as to what constitutes a good home defense gun. Many argue pistol, other argue something like an AR-15 or AK-47. To this day, however, if you walk into a gun store and say the words “home defense” the salesperson will shove a pump action shotgun into your hands before you can even finish the question.
While I have my own opinion, I also can’t disagree with the choice. It’s almost a movie/TV cliche at this point. Bad guy breaks into a house. As he’s sneaking around he hears that instantly recognizable “schlick-schlock” sound. He’s busted by the homeowner. The only thing left to do is sit quietly and wait for the police to come. At the same time, name one zombie video game or movie that doesn’t have a pump action shotgun in it. Go ahead. I’ll wait.
That’s what I thought… Continue reading
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Beginner Gun Review: Springfield XDs .45
Love is a funny thing. True love can last forever. Sometimes, it’s love at first sight. Other times, sadly, lust is mistaken for love and that never ends well.
I’ve carried an LC9 for a long time now. It’s not a bad gun, by any stretch. It’s a great choice for a pocket 9mm pistol. I love that gun but I have never been “in love” with it. It’s never been a gun that I’ve gotten excited about. I don’t sit and talk about it with fellow gun nuts the way I talk about my Glock 19 or Taurus PT-92 or Cobray M-11/9. I don’t light up when I mention my LC9.
Then, I saw it at a gun store. It was a Springfield Armory XDs .45 with a stainless steel slide. Continue reading
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Retro Review: Enfield Number 4, Mk II
When it comes to old battle rifles, the Garand, Mauser and Mosin tend to get all the love, but ever since the day I first saw the movie, “Breaker Morant,” I’ve wanted an Enfield. It was the first bolt-action, multi-round battle rifle the British ever fielded, and they continued to field it in one form or another until well after the Korean War. Think about that for a second. That would be like instead of the M1 Garand going to shore at Inchon in 1950, U.S. Soldiers carrying the same Krag-Jorgensen rifles Teddy Roosevelt carried up San Juan Hill in the Spanish American War. It wasn’t until the FN FAL came along that the British switched to a semi-automatic, and even then Enfields were retained as sniper rifles. Until just last year, Enfields were used in the far north by Canadian Rangers because they worked better in the freezing temperatures than the Canadian C7 rifles. It’s just, simply put, a great bolt-action rifle, and you can still find them out there. Continue reading
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Review: The Ruger American
Whether or not to buy the Ruger American Rifle came down to a coin flip for me. A few months ago I was overcome with two distinct itches. One was to buy a new gun and the other was to CoinStar the change in my change jar, which was beginning to weigh more than my children. The two itches seemed to complement one another, and the two candidates for my splurge came down to a Chilean military Madsen rifle in .30-06 (I have an affinity for old military rifles) and the Ruger American Rifle in .270. In the end, the Ruger won by virtue of its price. I had exactly enough money to pay the $375 price tag with what was in the coin jar while the Madsen would have required a little extra.
One could say that this story makes Ruger’s entire sales pitch when it comes to the American Rifle. It’s inexpensive yet comes with the kind of bells and whistles one would expect from higher priced rifles. The fact that I was literally able to buy a modern hunting rifle with loose change is the kind of garbage I would expect to see in a Ruger commercial, but there you go. I guess you win this round, Ruger!
But “inexpensive” doesn’t mean “quality,” and although I was willing to give the American a shake based on its price point, it would still have to prove itself both on the range and in the field. I was finally able to to take it to the first today, and the results were rather striking. Continue reading
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Beginner Gun Review: SIG Sauer P238
I may have mentioned before that my daily carry gun of choice is Ruger’s LC9 pistol. I like the gun’s size and the 9mm round it uses. Until now, I’d never really had the chance to shoot one of those .380 pocket pistols but I had heard many other’s opinions on them…whether I wanted to hear them or not. As far as I’m concerned, it’s a controversial round of sorts. There are just as many people saying that it’s perfectly fine for self defense as there are people saying it’s terrible. As I’ve mentioned before, ANY bullet size is better than no bullets at all. There are just too many stories of attackers being easily stopped with .22LR guns to discount the fabled “stopping power” of any bullet. In the end, shot placement > bullet size in every case.
But that’s not what I’m here to talk about… Continue reading
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Beginner Gun Review: Hi-Point 45
Usually, when I get an idea for an article, I start out with a good idea of what I’m going to say. Often times, once I get started writing or researching, the article will go in a direction that I didn’t expect. This is one of those cases. When I originally got the idea to test a Hi-Point pistol, I figured I would be able to make a bunch of clever jokes about the poor performance of a cheap and horribly ugly pistol. It would be an entertaining and borderline “fluff” piece. In the past, when I have written reviews, I give some history about the gun, then I talk about some features and then I say something to the effect of “will _____ be good? Read on to find out.” Not this time. I’m going to let you know right off the bat that this gun was very surprising. Read on to find out why… Continue reading
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Rifle Review: Saiga .223
A saiga (say-guh) is a kind of antelope that lives in eastern Russia. Kind of a weird name for a rifle, but then again it might be appropriate. Have you seen a picture of this thing? It’s an ugly animal, and the Saiga rifle that shares its name is an ugly rifle. But a rifle doesn’t have to be a beauty queen to be effective. The Saiga rifles (there’s a line of shotguns too) comes in .223, 5.45X39mm, 7.62X39mm and .308. It comes with a crappy plastic handguard and stock, no flash suppressor or muzzle brake, and the magazines are expensive. Those are things that can be improved upon. What it has going for it is its heritage. You see, the Saiga is a direct descendent of this. Continue reading
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Beginner Gun Review: Springfield Armory XDm
I get asked thousands of times a day “Hey, Noob, what should I get for my first gun?” Ok, it’s more like once every couple of months…if that. Either way, I usually recommend some kind of a .22 to learn on. Then they say “yeah right. Now seriously, what should I get?” Then I tell them a Glock or XDm in 9mm. I then go over the reason why I recommend those two and, at some point during the explanation, their eyes will glaze over and they’ll start daydreaming about bunnies. Then they’ll go off and buy a .44 Magnum and then complain that the recoil is horrific and that they can’t shoot it very well.
But I digress…
Whenever I recommend the Glock, it’s because of the legendary reliability of the weapon. I usually include the phrase “I have a Glock 19 and it’s been great.” I then recommend the XDm because of the accessories it comes with but I include the phrase “I’ve never actually shot one but I’ve heard nothing but good things about them.”
Well, fellow Noobs, I finally tried one. Continue reading
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