Has your gun ever been ridiculed? let's hear it

I have owned some pretty expensive guns and some not so. After buying and selling quite a few I have found that the Ruger P95 fits my hand very well, is ambidextrous, thus accomodating my left-handedness, and just functions like a warrior.

I have never been openly ridiculed for my P and have a hard time imagining anyone with any decency doing so. Now if its a friend giving me some grief, then its all quite fine. Anyone who would make fun of another shooter's gun needs to go back to the sandbox and learn a few precious lessons not gained. I would never deride anyone's gun, its just not part of my character or even tangential thought processes.

"my friend in the shop told me he doesn't like your car. He doesn't like German cars." I was so surprised that I just looked at the guy... I wasn't expecting to hear something so juvenile from mechanics that were right around my age at the time (early 30s). It felt like Third Grade at the cafeteria and a kid would say something like, "my friend here doesn't like your lunchbox"

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I think he was more commenting on the fact that German cars like Mercedes and BMW are more complex under the hood not to mention parts cost alot more, thus the mechanic was stating the fact he doesn't like German cars since their a pain in the a** to fix.

Wow! Here's a thread from the past.

Yes! I have had a gun I was holding ridiculed, and I couldn't believe where and by whom.

I was attending a 3 day training program on basic pistol. The class was on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday. On the Wednesday before, I bought a Springfield XDm-40. Didn't get a chance to get to the range with it, barely had time to clean the shipping oil out of it and put shooting oil on it, then left on Thursday morning for the 600 mile trip to the training school. I had been planning to use a Beretta FS96 that weekend, with a Colt 1911 on standby in case of hardware trouble with the Beretta. At the last minute I decided to take the new XDm, and have the Beretta and Colt ready in case of trouble with the XDm. On the first day of training, one of the first exercises was to allow students to feel their trigger reset. Student dry fires, and holds trigger back while instructor manually cycles slide (while student continues to hold gun). Then student pays attention to trigger reset as he... well, resets it. 10 or 12 reps and instructor moves to next student.

While I was doing the drill, as one of the instructors was cycling my slide, he mumbled kind of under his breath "these are terrible weapons". I wasn't sure I heard him right, but by the end of the second day, after getting to know all the instructors a little bit, I was able to add enough context to be sure that I had indeed heard him correctly.

The gun fired 1800 rounds that weekend with no failures of any kind. And that was with no break-in what-so-ever. I can't imagine what that instructors experience must have been to give him that opinion of the XDm.

The guns I have are what I bought cheap, traded for or researched and bought new.. I could give a rat's behind what people think about my guns.

Not directly. I did buy a gun because of the hype that turned out to be a mistake. (A S&W Sigma.)

But really.....do you have nothing better to do than mock others' choices? This is why America is beautiful, we can all make all the bad decisions we want to. As long as the guns aren't unsafe, it's not my problem.

If you see a guy with a beat up, sporterized milsurp out on the trail hunting, mock him if you want to. You may get a demonstration that he carries it because he can run that old gun better than you will ever run ANY gun. (My departed grandfather with his iron-sighted 1917 comes to mind.)

Show me a guy who snickers at people's guns at the range, and I'll show you a guy who doesn't know jack about his own gun, and bought it based on third party hype.

Sometimes my bros give me flack for my hello kitty AK, mom made me the stock coozy.

I shoot with the local LEO`s every so often & I get my Milsurps ridiculed every time, until I out shoot their high-dollar guns.

mg.mikael said:

I think he was more commenting on the fact that German cars like Mercedes and BMW are more complex under the hood not to mention parts cost alot more, thus the mechanic was stating the fact he doesn't like German cars since their a pain in the a** to fix.

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Sorry, I disagree, since I was the one he was talking to. You weren't around to hear the guy's tone. Besides, it was just an emissions inspection.

Thought that Hello Kitty AK looked familar. By the way, that view of the other side of the handguard shows the gas take down lever on the left side. They are only on the right side.

As a general rule, when you are young, do not get yourself a black rifle, especially if you look 14. Do not betray an academic knowledge of firearms either, and definitely do not attempt to learn practical shooting. The result is that you get called mall ninja. Black rifles and being a teenager have not mixed for me.

FIVETWOSEVEN said:

Thought that Hello Kitty AK looked familar. By the way, that view of the other side of the handguard shows the gas take down lever on the left side. They are only on the right side.

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I'm pretty sure he was joking. The hello kitty AK is clearly photoshopped.

You won't ever be tempted to worry about anyone dissing whatever it is you're shooting if you're shooting it well.

There's a great little poem by Myra B. Welch which I'm sure is in the public domain: Here's part of it:


THE TOUCH OF THE MASTER'S HAND

'Twas battered and scarred, and the auctioneer
Thought it was scarcely worth his while
To waste much time on the old violin
But held it up with a smile.
"What am I bidden, good folks," he cried,
"Who'll start the bidding for me?
"A dollar, a dollar," then, two! Only two?
"Two dollars,and who'll make it three?"
"Three dollars, once, three dollars, twice;
Going for three..." But no,
From the room, far back, a grey-haired man
Came forward and picked up the bow;
Then, wiping the dust from the old violin,
And tightening the loose strings,
He played a melody pure and sweet
As a caroling angel sings.

The music ceased, and the auctioneer,
With a voice that was quiet and low,
Said:"What am I bid for the old violin?"
And he held it up with the bow.
"A thousand dollars, and who'll make it two?
"Two thousand! And who'll make it three?"
Three thousand, once, three thousand, twice;
And going and gone," said he.
The people cheered, but some of them cried,
"We do not quite understand
What changes its worth?" Swift came the reply:
"The touch of the master's hand."


Learn how to use your tools well. Practice a lot.

Produce top quality results every time, and nobody will criticize your tools.

^ Agreed. If the Navy SEALS dressed in pink floral camouflage, then nobody would call pink a girly color.

I'm not picking at the Hunting crowd but they have picked at me.
A bunch of guys shooting scoped bolt action rifles with me in the middle with a Remington 1903A3. During a cease fire I heard a couple of guys wondering if I was hitting the berm. Seeing as I didn't have a scope and was shooting at a target 300 yards out.
I took a chance the next round of shooting on a clean target. Ten rounds of M2 ball, iron sights and resting on bags. I got a group just shy of five inches. When I brought the target back I left it sit by my rifle case and waited to hear any other comments. The only one was "Well it is a Remington".

No I have not.
Oh dang it , I guess I have.
A long time ago someone commented on a stainless 640 I had.
"That shiny is going to reflect a lot and will be too easily seen."
My reply was the loud bang and flash would draw attention too. It ain't coming out for no reason and if it is out , it will be used.
It could be the crowd I associate with.
Everyone has an opinion and a reason to buy or carry a specific piece.
I have not run into anyone packing PINK yet. I hope I don't laugh too loudly. A snicker is going to be there no matter what.

Yep! But I like the concept, perhaps Red Jacket will make one for me!

In all seriousness, I don't understand any criticism of functional firearms. Seems like someone posted in this thread a $40 buck pistol..... That is a great find in my book... Every platform has it's fans and I respect them all....

In my tool box I have cheap but functional tools and I have quality high dollar tools, they all have their purpose.

12gaugeTim said:

I'm pretty sure he was joking. The hello kitty AK is clearly photoshopped.

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I'm not picking at the Hunting crowd but they have picked at me.
A bunch of guys shooting scoped bolt action rifles with me in the middle with a Remington 1903A3. During a cease fire I heard a couple of guys wondering if I was hitting the berm. Seeing as I didn't have a scope and was shooting at a target 300 yards out.
I took a chance the next round of shooting on a clean target. Ten rounds of M2 ball, iron sights and resting on bags. I got a group just shy of five inches. When I brought the target back I left it sit by my rifle case and waited to hear any other comments. The only one was "Well it is a Remington".

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I run into this sometimes also. I prefer iron sights, enen though I do own a couple of scoped rifles somewhere in the back of the safe.

We all have our preferences, but one of the keys to happiness in life, is to only share them when you are asked.

1) I carry a .380 daily i.e. "no stopping power" "you'd be better off throwing stones"

2) I prefer AK-74's to AR-15's i.e. com-block junk or russian boat anchors

3) I am in love with my XD 9mm service, and they don't have quite the following as the M&P or the glock lines but I don't hate on them why all the hate on me???

3) I am in love with my XD 9mm service, and they don't have quite the following as the M&P or the glock lines but I don't hate on them why all the hate on me???

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I feel your pain. I'm one of the twelve Americans who like the Styer M series.

Ha.... I own (and regularly carry) the following: Rossi 462, Tauras 85UL & PT945, and a PF-9(among others.) I think every one of them has been discounted at one time or another. I, however, like all of them and shoot them as well as my "better" guns, so I just smile and say, "ok".

No, and if I did it wouldn't bother me. Anybody who would badmouth a man's gun, dog or woman isn't anybody I'd pay attention to anyway, nor care to be around in the first place.

Ribbing & banter is another story. It is permissable to poke at fanboiz re their choice of weapons or reloading equipment or what have ya.

Women & dogs are still off limits tho...

Ought to be engraved somewhere.

No, and if I did it wouldn't bother me. Anybody who would badmouth a man's gun, dog or woman isn't anybody I'd pay attention to anyway, nor care to be around in the first place.

Ribbing & banter is another story. It is permissable to poke at fanboiz re their choice of weapons or reloading equipment or what have ya.

Women & dogs are still off limits tho...

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Well said. I agree.

I've had guys raz me about one of the handguns that I bought right before the Brady Bill went into effect -- a TEC-9. I bought it for the sole reason of it being banned since I figured I would be able to sell it later for more than I paid for it plus I just didn't like any stinkin' leftists telling me what I could or could not own. I've probably only put 3 mags through it (i.e. 150 rounds) and I didn't experience any jams, so I guess it's reliable enough. Totally impractical, of course... It just sits in the back of my safe...

orionengnr said:

Yet another first-time poster resurrecting a long-dead thread...
What is it with new posters that they cannot start a new conversation?

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Because they find the thread while searching for something else and feel that it's a good place to reply instead of creating a brand new thread? I'm not going to fault them for it since I hate seeing tons of threads all about the same thing.

Nope, never. The range is for shooting, not talking.

As a new shooter I did have my "American" brand ammo criticized once by an old salt, but he was right about that. That stuff really is absolute trash.