[BattleFlag]

Second Amendment Sisters Rock!

[Adrastus]

Regarding a concealed carry weapon, I happened on one that suites me to the ground. I picked up a Berretta Model 8045D for a very reasonable price. It's a weapon that's compact, safe and easily carried. You can get a larger mag to go with it with an 8 rd capacity. The double action aspect is no problem but you may want your gunsmith to do a trigger job on it. I'm a .45 fan of long standing (European pellet guns..9mm..I have no use for). I have rather large hands and can handle it quite well with the extended mag.

[cryptical]

Have no opinion on the safe, but for a CCW .45, I'm getting a HK USP Compact in 45 soon. I would have bought one yesterday if the gun shop had one in stock, but I had to settle for renting on the range. Very smooth pistol.

[Yasotay]

I like my Ft Knox "Titan" (with non-electric lock) and my USP .45 ....

[cryptical]

Forgot to go BANG.

[DocRock]

I am a firearm owner and enthusiast as well as a retail jeweler relying daily on my firearm to protect my life. To protect firearms and jewelry form those parasites that wish to have nice things without working for them, I rely on only UL rated safes. These safes have a TL rating such as TL-15, TL-30 or TL-60 and your insurance will drop as the rating goes up. If my memory serves me correctly, the number represents the amount of time (in minutes) it took Underwriters Laboratory to penetrate the safe with the tools (therefore the TL rating) and the working knowledge of the safe. I could be wrong on this, but I'm not wrong on the fact that these are very high security and not easy to crack. Just do a simple search on TL-15, TL-30 or TL-60 and you will see that you get what you pay for.

[Billthedrill]

The Para is a superb choice. The Kimber Ultra CDP is another fine firearm for this purpose. I have seen but not fired a Springfield Armory Micro Compact (3" bbl) and have fired their Ultra Compact (3.5" bbl) and I would certainly put Springfield on my short list.

You get more in the magazine with a Para but it's thicker as a result. Leather is crucial for an everyday carry gun, and if you skimp there you'll be sorry.

With a powerful compact pistol ammo is also crucial for reliability, so find what your individual piece and the harmonics of your body like the best. Remember spring tension is more critical with a small firearm firing a big bullet, and replace your recoil springs regularly (I do it yearly on my birthday so I don't forget).

The best solution is (how many times have you read this on FR? But it's true) to go to a range that rents pistols of that type and try as many of them as you can.

Me, I love my Kimber... ;-)

[Warthog]

I have a Hall's safe. It's very fire resistant and Very secure. No opinion about CCW as it's nearly impossible to get one out here in California (unless you're a democrat politician - like our Senator Feinstein)

[joesnuffy]

Glock 30 or 36 with Pearce grip extender if you have large meathooks...

Glock 29 in 10mm with Pearce extender...loaded with Double Taps variety pack of unreal velocities..

DoubleTap

Because two holes are better than one

[Cogadh na Sith]

No question: Liberty Gun Safe with fire lining.

For concealed .45: Kimber.

[Monty22]

"Next, I would like your recommendation on a concealed carry .45ACP pistol."

Glock 36 or Sig P245 are excellent.

[Towed_Jumper]

I don't know if you have Costco Warehouses where you leave but I recently picked up a nice Canon "Executive Vault" Fire Safe for about $650. This thing weights about 700 lbs and is rated for 30 minutes protection at 1,200 degrees F.

Even if you don't have too many firearms, there's plenty of room for cameras, old photos, tax records, your wife's jewelry, etc. I thought it was a good price given that many of the bigger fire safes start out at around $1,000+.

[LibWhacker]

Don't know personally since I keep finding other things to spend money on . . . But I've always wanted a Liberty Safe. The rec.guns faq has touted them as one of the best safes for years.

Burglars broke into my brother's house a while back when he was out of town and spent the better part of a day cutting a hole in the side of his safe because it was too heavy to carry out. So for my money, the bigger, the heavier, and the thicker the steel plate (all around, not just the front), the better.

[fourdeuce82d]

I like kimber and springfield...not enough knowledge to make that a "Suggest"...I've just had good fortune with their products. I have had some bad luck with Para Ord...parts breaking, etc.

My personal preference is a 4" tube- I find I can still shoot and hit at a relatively rapid pace, but find it harder to do so with a 3" pipe. Plus, the Conventional Wisdom is that 3" tubes are more likely to malf...then again, conventional wisdom held the Earth was flat, so there you go.

As others have posted, here and other places, rent 'em before you buy 'em.

Good luck, stay safe...and have fun!

[Redcoat LI]

THE USP COMPACT LEM

OR,If you are married to.45

THE USP COMPACT SERIES

The HK USP Compact is a small frame pistol capable of firing the most powerful cartridges in 9mm, .40 S&W, .357 SIG, and .45 ACP. Based on the full-size USP models, these handy pistols combine compact size with optimum effective shooting performance.

[CurlyDave]

Think about why you want this safe in the first place.

I have a gun safe to keep casual intruders, neighborhood kids, and my own kids' friends out. This is part of responsible gun ownership, and also protects me from Kali's laws about safe gun storage. No safe, no matter how big or strong is going to keep a professional out.

My protection against fire and professional theft is in the form of a rider on my homeowner's insurance and a set of digital pictures of my guns stored on a CD at work, so it won't burn down with the house.

The safe is not fireproof and I am not sure that it is even a good idea to keep guns in a fireproof safe. The fireproofing works because it is a hydrated material which releases water when it is heated. sounds to me like the guns might survive a fire, but be pretty pittted & rusted afterwards. I would rather have them be total losses replaced by insurance.

Documents and small valuables go into a second, small document safe. This one is fireproof and bolted to a concrete floor from the inside. For a document safe, the first line of defense is concealment, which is not very practical with a gun safe.

I am not going to post my methods of concealment on the internet, but devote some thought to it and you will be amazed.

Total cost was $300 for a Browning gun safe at auction, and about $150 for the document safe.

BTW, no matter how nice looking it is, don't put your gun safe in the rec room or anyplace where visitors might see it in your house. It is an advertisement that you have guns & valuables in there. Don't just think about your friends coming to your house: plumbers, repair men, telephone installers, etc. come & go over the years.

[Mulder]

I am looking for recommendations for gun safe makers, models and features.

Don't buy a safe to accomadate everything you have right now. Figure up all the stuff you'll want to put in there over the next 20 years, and multiply by 3 to get the right size safe.

I'd get the largest safe you can fit in your house. Go with one of the standard companies, such as Fort Knox, or Liberty. There are others too.

Don't plan on moving the safe yourself. Let the experts do it. Moving a safe is a real pain in the butt, so look around for a dealer that will move the safe inside your house. Also, get them to bolt it to the slab.

Next, I would like your recommendation on a concealed carry .45ACP pistol.

First, you need to decide what trigger system you want to go with. You can get double-action, single-action like a Sig; cocked-and-locked like a 1911, or double action only like a Glock.

I'm not a 1911 expert, so others can help you here. Although I have a friend that carries a Kimber and he is very happy with it.

If you want a DA/SA trigger, I'd recommend a Sig or an H&K.

[Tijeras_Slim]

No reccomendation on a safe, but I like the midsized LDA (Commander sized barrel with a compact frame). I also shoot a conventional 1911 quite a bit. The LDA trigger pull is long, but light and smooth. Since I shoot revolvers lots, it is no problem. Sort of the best of both worlds.