Taking gun tips from my wife, now...!

[TimboKhan]

I hate to add another choice to the thread here, and I have to preface what I am about to say by pointing out I do not own one personally, but you might want to consider a Makarov. Plenty of guys have and carry them, and from what I have noticed, plenty of guys are very, very happy with them. I don't think that I will be carrying a Mak anytime soon, but I actually have decided to buy one based off the fairly prolific praise they receive on THR. Of your group, I would probably go with the Bersa, by the way. One other point that I would make is that you can carry ANYTHING if your willing to adjust your fashion sense. I am a very big man, and I have, on rare occasion, happily packed around my Ruger P90. I thought I could get away with it because I am a big guy, but the fact is, stuff sticks out on me a whole lot worse than it does on your skinny/in shape guys, so it really is just a function of what you feel most comfortable with and what your willing to do, within reason of course, to accomodate a particular gun.

Timbo

 

[Kalindras]

TK--

Erg...no Maks. While they're a great little gun, and a value--or so I've heard at least--I want a nice mainstream calibre. It's not bad enough I've already got to feed for .22 LR, .38+P, .357, .40 S&W, .45 ACP, .45 LC, and a handful of rifle calibres...I don't want to have to hunt down Mak ammo in the Styx, too!!

I'm leaning really hard toward the 1911...thinking about a Springfield, if I can somehow scrape the cash together or work a trade. I don't want to carry my 1911, since it's Dad's old WWII piece. I trust it implicitly, but I also have too much respect for it to trash it in EDC.

GAHHH!!!! Too many choices. I'm hoping that a good look around Collector's will help. I'll see what comes of it, and report back after. Thanks for everyone who's taken time to chime in. I really appreciate how eager everyone is to help out!

 

[LightningJoe]

You may not know how large and heavy a gun you will reliably carry until you try a few. Making sure you're armed at all times is kind of important, so you might want to buy first the carry gun you know you'll always have on you, that Kel-Tec P-3AT (the first generation ones have better sights in my opinion). Then, you might move up to something bigger in the future (try one of those Kahr PMs or Taurus Millenium Pros). If you win the lottery, get a Rohrbaugh (although the Rohrbaugh may not pass that 200 round test since I think the manufacturer recommends cleaning it every 50 rounds). A Kel-Tec P3 can or can be tuned to pass the 200 round test.

 

[ajax]

I own a Bersa and it is a fine weapon. Very accurate to a point. Lifetime warrenty. 3 dot sights with adjustable rear sight. My vote is Bersa.

 

[Kalindras]

...And as usual, I go off on a complete tangent...

Well, I wandered down to Houston (7.5 hour drive...ugh... ) and got over to Collector's. Told the folks there what I was looking for, and got some help. First off, they took one look at what I was wearing, and said, "More'n likely, you're looking for a pocket-carry." So, I felt around on a couple of Kel-Tec's, but they didn't make me happy (just don't feel like a GUN, IMHO). Then they pointed me to a Taurus Millenium (NICE trigger, 10+1 in 9mm, but a bit chunky), but it ran a little too high, at $380. They don't trade in Bersas, siting some statistics about crime/gun sales ratio and get "rated," but hey, it's their store, and I ain't gonna tell 'em what to stock. Looked at S&W snubby, but it seemed to trade off capacity, and still left me with a chunky gun to hide.

So, I was about to call it quits, when there, at the bottom of the case, buried amongst the PPKs and SIGs (neither of which I could even afford to TOUCH... ) I saw it. The CZ-83. A .380 double-stack, it still fit my pocket pretty nicely (and my pocketbook!), yet filled my hand comfortably, and provided that HEFT that I was looking for. It followed me home, and will get to the range tomorrow!

Thanks to everyone who chipped in their $.02, and I'll report back when I've shot it a few times. In the meantime, anyone making IWB holsters for these, in case I don't feel like throwing it in a pocket?