Reason For A Duplicate

Sound important enough to me for you to do exactly what you're doing!

Be a good chance to introduce diversity into your life.

I carry a S & W Shield and love it.

As I see it, there are two reasons for selecting a particular gun.

1) I don't have one; one would be cool.

2) I already have one; another one would be cool.

I started a thread here several years back asking members to which gun they'd switch if their primary EDC (which I asked them to identify) went out of service, for example, it was seized after a defensive-gun usage incident. Many respondents simply said they'd "pull out their other one."

I’ve always had two near-exact copies of the most important guns I need. Two ARs, exactly the same sights, furniture. Two G19s. I also have two Beretta Tomcats.

What happens when you break one, lose one, etc...

It was harder when I was into 1911s to justify two exact Wilson Combat 1911s...but I talked myself into it.

I’d make sure the duplicate has already been fixed in the recall. Or this will end up being an expensive thread.

one is none, two is one, three is two..so yeah duplicates of what you know and shoot well are very ok.

I have become a big believer in “3 is 2, 2 is 1 and 1 is None.”

Having a duplicate is a good idea if you are ever in self-defense situation. The Police are going to take your gun for evidence and as part of the investigation. I can go home, go to the vault, pull out the spare, load it and stick in my holster that I still have on and am g-t-g. No rethinking about what gun I am carrying.

I will add that my guns are not exact duplicates. They vary some in what sights they may have or have different stocks but they are all the same model and operate the same way.

My biggest problem is the expense. Thanks to a large part to Barry and Eric about 3 years ago I re-evaluated my diverse assortment of firearms and ammunition and was surprised how much I came up short. So I am making it a priority to acquire duplicates. As I am including arming other family members this means more guns than other folks feel are unnecessary for their situations.

The only real downside is I don’t have money for buying other types and models of guns at the moment. Future gun purchases are made with the “3 is 2, 2 is 1” plan. This is one of the reasons why I am excited about the Ruger Wrangler. Two exact duplicates for less than $400.00 really helps the budget.

I had a couple of safe queens which I sold and picked up a second P365 as a back up, and have two Shields, a 2.0 with the 3 inch barrel and I just picked up a 4 inch one from their Performance Center. Both of my P365's recently came back from repair and the 4 inch Shield is at S&W now, as it wasn't feeding hollow points reliably. I'm not concerned about duplicating range guns, but it's a good idea to do so if possible for carry guns.

Frankly, I've never understood the crowd that "rolled their eyes" with respect to having duplicates of their defensive weapons. Guessing they're the folks that have never had to use a firearm for any purpose in real life. Those that have, know better. At the very least, one's carry gun should have a duplicate to regularly take to the range. I get that for some, buying more guns is an expense they feel that they can't afford, but comes a time for some of us that we just have to sacrifice …

I have a P30 LEM 9mm and a P2000 LEM 9mm. The P2K gets carried and I do most of my practice with the P30 but if the P2K went down, the P30 would fill the role with ease. They shoot almost them same for me with a slight edge to the P30.

My carry gun broke last year. Now I have two carry guns. View media item 2364
It's not a duplicate, ,but rather a backup. It's a good thing to have a fall back gun.

For a backup tp my primary carry gun I would rather have something completely different than my primary carry gun. Something that might be better in a different situation than my primary carry gun. Like a Kahr CM9 or Diamond Back DB9 that would fit into one of those little purses they carry on a fancy evening. Maybe even an ultra-lite 38 revolver?



Not a dup in the bunch! It is really nice to have a smaller option when one is needed.

MikeInOr said:

For a backup tp my primary carry gun I would rather have something completely different than my primary carry gun. Something that might be better in a different situation than my primary carry gun. Like a Kahr CM9 or Diamond Back DB9 that would fit into one of those little purses they carry on a fancy evening. Maybe even an ultra-lite 38 revolver?
......
Not a dup in the bunch! It is really nice to have a smaller option when one is needed.

Click to expand...

I fail to see your reasoning. I agree that it's cool to own a bunch of different guns but for me, I find it difficult to master them all. For carry I want a duplicate that is very similar if not identical. Same trigger pull, slide release, mag release, etc. I've tried shooting two different guns under pressure and for me it just doesn't work.

MarshallDodge said:

I fail to see your reasoning. I agree that it's cool to own a bunch of different guns but for me, I find it difficult to master them all. For carry I want a duplicate that is very similar if not identical. Same trigger pull, slide release, mag release, etc. I've tried shooting two different guns under pressure and for me it just doesn't work.

Click to expand...

Everyone has to do what works for them. I have always owned multiple very dissimular hand guns and I have never had a problem switching between them and not be able to operate the controls instinctively. I have never been sensative to trigger pull either... I Iearned to shoot on DA/SA autos like my Beretta 92... where the first trigger pull and followup pulls are very dissimular.

MikeInOr said:

Everyone has to do what works for them. I have always owned multiple very dissimular hand guns and I have never had a problem switching between them and not be able to operate the controls instinctively. I have never been sensative to trigger pull either... I Iearned to shoot on DA/SA autos like my Beretta 92... where the first trigger pull and followup pulls are very dissimular.

Click to expand...

Have you ever had to switch between them when it was really important?

I know a lot of people who have two (or more) identical guns and use one for carry and one for range/class/hard use.

To be honest I don't think I put enough rounds through my guns to justify that.

I wouldn't mind buying a duplicate if the opportunity presented itself. If I did it would probably be a second Glock 26 rather than a 19 because I carry the 26 much more often. (Probably wouldn't be baby poop green tho)

To me, one of the benefits of a duplicate handgun or at least staying within the same platform is the commonality of magazines and accessories.

If you end up purchasing a completely different handgun for your wife then you're going to have to get different holsters, more magazines possibly you're going to have to stock a different caliber. Whereas of course if you just go out and buy a duplicate of the same handgun you already have all that.

If something happened tomorrow where both of my Glocks we're out of commission or gone my fallback would be my M&P 9.

When I bought my 45 shield it was such a great deal I purchased 2 just to have a backup, I've been looking closely at the Taurus g2c after rebate about 164.00 for my next carry piece, my wife carries a purple SCCY and I found a black one for her backup but so far no issues with any of them

Trunk Monkey said:

Have you ever had to switch between them when it was really important?

Click to expand...

Depends on how important a level is set?

But I've been dealing with adaptability issues for way over a half century and never found it really significant. I revolvers it was single action only vs double action/single action vs double action only; and pull to open cylinder vs push to open cylinder; and latch behind cylinder vs latch before cylinder vs pull out rod; and swing open cylinder vs top break auto eject. Then there are the many variations in trigger pull, trigger feel, reset.

Humans should be versatile multipurpose tools and should train to be adaptable.

AbE: on the topic though, I like to have several examples of each type handgun available and to practice regularly so any differences become minor. What I consider the reasonable set would be the Goldilocks Paradigm; several full size semis and revolvers, several compact revolvers and semis and several pocket semis and revolvers.

jar said:

Depends on how important a level is set?

Click to expand...

You're minding your own business and all of a sudden somebody starts gunfight at the end of your parking lot.

Have you ever had to be a multi-purpose tool using human under those conditions?

Well boys & girls one thing is for certian we are STILL in record low pricing of all firearms platforms. Perhaps slightly on upswing, but, if you're going to purchase for whatever reason, do it NOW

Trunk Monkey said:

You're minding your own business and all of a sudden somebody starts gunfight at the end of your parking lot.

Have you ever had to be a multi-purpose tool using human under those conditions?

Click to expand...

Nope. But if it's at the end of my parking lot then there is plenty of time to first call in the Calvary.

I have exact duplicate guns in a few cases. I even have 3 exact glock 22s. 1 I carry and shoot a lot that wears a light. One in case that breaks, especially at a class.(yep my Glocks break too, just rarely) but it also serves as my bedside gun in its little safe, also wearing the same light. And another without a light just so I dont have to remove it if I don't need it. I keep a bin full of normal wear parts too.
I have 2 329 pd revolvers, simply because they have proven to self destruct with low round counts and that way I'll have one to carry checking fences and such while the other is back at smith and Wesson. I'm about one return from saying to hell with them and buying 2 matching 4 inch 629/redhawk/or blackhawks. I love the low weight of the 329 and smith has so far showed pretty good CS but I'm losing any faith in the guns. There are others where ive just found good deals aand have multiples of collector things but those don't fit the op really.

Odd Job said:

duplicates is great for troubleshooting also

Click to expand...

This is also true. So long as the guns are pretty much exact copies (small changes are common from year to year) and mass produced not hand fitted. The Walther/Glock/Smith and similar can be diagnosed by stealing parts from one that works. I did just that a few years ago with a Sig that choked on every type of ammo in every imaginable way. A friend brought it and I had one similar to steal parts from temporarily. Did make for really ugly 2 tone models though since mine was nitron and his was stainless. Sig must have paid attention since they now offer the same ugly two tone look. It also cuts down on holsters/ magazines etc to have some shared between guns.