Tallball
Member
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2014
- Messages
- 7,813
Person 1: In my nice mostly crime-free neighborhood I carry a little revolver or something. If I'm going somewhere sketchy, I carry a full-sized service pistol.
Person 2: I always carry what I'd want to have with me if something bad happened, so I always carry a full-sized service pistol.
This summer I moved from an upper middle-class neighborhood with no street crime to a working-class neighborhood where people get mugged/assaulted with some regularity.
The "what to carry in what kind of neighborhood" question became very relevant to me. Unless I run an errand in a nicer part of town, I'm pretty much always in a "bad" area with homeless guys wandering around, sketchy characters driving old vehicles around slowly to steal things off of porches, young hoodlum guys waking up at noon to walk over and get a 40 oz, etc.
I don't have to wonder how I'm most likely to be assaulted. One or two guys will try to quickly jump me, beat me, and take my possessions. I see them walking around every day. That's what they do when they're not busy stealing lawn mowers or looking for houses to break into or whatever.
So I carry what I would want to have with me if I get jumped. I want something that I can draw and use very fast if someone is right on me, like if they were in bushes or behind a car and jumped out at me.
I can draw a small semiauto or revolver much faster than a full-sized service pistol, so that's what I carry. It has to be carried where I can get to it quickly. That varies with the weather: an easy to reach shorts pocket, OWB under a t-shirt, coat pocket, etc. I prefer a revolver due contact shooting, not getting knocked out of battery, usefulness as a bludgeon, etc. Sometimes a semiauto is quicker, like an LCP in the breast pocket of a coat.
What about accuracy? I noticed something interesting about that on a recent range trip with a friend. We were shooting quickly at paper targets and steel targets at ranges of about 7-10 yards. We shot his LCR and my Taurus snub, his S&W EZ and my Springfield XDS, and his customized Ruger 85 (true story) and my 9mm 1911. He said out of the blue, "I'll be darned if I don't shoot your XDS just as well as my P85..." We started looking at the used targets more closely. We had been just as accurate with the smaller semiautos as the larger ones... and to our surprise, about the same with the snubs as well. Both of us shot every handgun into a roughly fist-sized group, with an occasional flier. We both tried the various handguns on the steel targets, too, and basically hit every time except for fliers. (Note: We're both in our 50's and have been shooting snub revolvers DA for decades.)
The handgun that I myself can carry the most easily and draw the quickest is a small revolver or small semiauto, carried as accessibly as possible. Apparently at SD ranges I shoot those about as well as I shoot anything else. So that's what I carry.
YMMV. Lots of people had decades and decades of training with a certain carry method and handgun type. Doubtless that's what works best for them.
Person 2: I always carry what I'd want to have with me if something bad happened, so I always carry a full-sized service pistol.
This summer I moved from an upper middle-class neighborhood with no street crime to a working-class neighborhood where people get mugged/assaulted with some regularity.
The "what to carry in what kind of neighborhood" question became very relevant to me. Unless I run an errand in a nicer part of town, I'm pretty much always in a "bad" area with homeless guys wandering around, sketchy characters driving old vehicles around slowly to steal things off of porches, young hoodlum guys waking up at noon to walk over and get a 40 oz, etc.
I don't have to wonder how I'm most likely to be assaulted. One or two guys will try to quickly jump me, beat me, and take my possessions. I see them walking around every day. That's what they do when they're not busy stealing lawn mowers or looking for houses to break into or whatever.
So I carry what I would want to have with me if I get jumped. I want something that I can draw and use very fast if someone is right on me, like if they were in bushes or behind a car and jumped out at me.
I can draw a small semiauto or revolver much faster than a full-sized service pistol, so that's what I carry. It has to be carried where I can get to it quickly. That varies with the weather: an easy to reach shorts pocket, OWB under a t-shirt, coat pocket, etc. I prefer a revolver due contact shooting, not getting knocked out of battery, usefulness as a bludgeon, etc. Sometimes a semiauto is quicker, like an LCP in the breast pocket of a coat.
What about accuracy? I noticed something interesting about that on a recent range trip with a friend. We were shooting quickly at paper targets and steel targets at ranges of about 7-10 yards. We shot his LCR and my Taurus snub, his S&W EZ and my Springfield XDS, and his customized Ruger 85 (true story) and my 9mm 1911. He said out of the blue, "I'll be darned if I don't shoot your XDS just as well as my P85..." We started looking at the used targets more closely. We had been just as accurate with the smaller semiautos as the larger ones... and to our surprise, about the same with the snubs as well. Both of us shot every handgun into a roughly fist-sized group, with an occasional flier. We both tried the various handguns on the steel targets, too, and basically hit every time except for fliers. (Note: We're both in our 50's and have been shooting snub revolvers DA for decades.)
The handgun that I myself can carry the most easily and draw the quickest is a small revolver or small semiauto, carried as accessibly as possible. Apparently at SD ranges I shoot those about as well as I shoot anything else. So that's what I carry.
YMMV. Lots of people had decades and decades of training with a certain carry method and handgun type. Doubtless that's what works best for them.
