Posted on 04/15/2003 12:10:12 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
It turns out that an amateur boxer is more likely to come out the winner in a real street fight than a karate black-belt who trained in a "dancing academy", as the boxer is actually used to full-contact, and dealing with pain.
I call most martial-arts places "dancing academies" in that they train people to deal with very artificial situations: Judo moves that rely on the other person wearing a judo outfit to grab onto, absolutely no practice done on anything other than a padded mat, pulling punches (which totally changes the timing), etc, etc
Because, as my dear old dad says, I hate like hell to shoot a man and then stand there and argue with him. :-D
.38 is marginal for self defense, even with the +P rounds (let's not even talk about the .32, that's marginal for field mice). The .45 is a trifle on the heavy side, but you get used to it. And, God forbid you should actually have to shoot somebody, they will go down and stay there. I have never actually had to shoot anyone (on two occasions simply assuming a Weaver stance was enough to make the assailant beat feet, and I won't shoot a man in the back) but my dad once had to, and a single shot from the .45 knocked the man sprawling. (He saw a lot of GIs who survived 9mm Luger wounds, but he never saw a live German with a .45 hole in him.)
When I'm carrying I usually wear a Bianchi shoulder holster under my jacket, which distributes the weight very nicely. The 1911 is a difficult "summer carry" if you wear your shirt tucked in, not because it's heavy but because it "prints". The new "pager holster" and fanny pack with integral holster are not bad (I won't carry in a purse - it just gives a purse snatcher a free bonus.) But I got the P245 for a little less obvious carry. And people see what they expect to see anyway - which is not a matronly 48 year old packing a 1911.
My lady is 5'2" and 115, and so only a little bit smaller than your daughter. She isn't particularly recoil sensitive and will shoot anything you give her, but one of the problems she had with shotguns was that the 12ga were too heavy for her to use regularly. Her arms would get tired very quickly.
I have a shotgun for just this situation that slight women seem to love: a Remington Model 17 I picked up several years ago (picked out by an ex-girlfriend at gunshow who insisted that I buy it). The Model 17 is a 20ga pump, and they haven't made them in 75 years, but the design is superb. They are very light, have a wonderful trigger, and they don't cost too much even though they do have some collector value. I picked mine up for $175 and it gets a lot of use because half the women I know love the thing. I've thought about picking up another.
I wish Remington would make another shotgun like the Model 17 that was slightly modernized. Their current line of equivalent 870s just don't compare, though I have one.
You obviously need to move up to a bigger caliber. LOL.
I have my mom's old dove gun, an 1148 in 28 gauge. It is light, a great natural pointer, and you can literally shoot it all day. I once shot skeet round about with two friends from about 10 in the morning until 4 in the afternoon, with a short break for a Coke and a sandwich. I'm looking for the same model in 12 and/or 20.
I also have my grandfather's Browning "Mankiller" in 16 ga., and it's a punisher. I can't shoot more than a couple of rounds of skeet without feeling like I'm getting beat up. It's not the gauge, because my dad's Parker is a 16 and if it wasn't for the "bang" you'd think it was a 28.
Yep, several companies made shotguns of that design in the early 20th century. It comes from the same design family as the old Remington Model 17 that I have found to be simply wonderful. I think the design was originally done by Browning, but made by Remington, Ithaca, and one other company.
What I want to know, is why can't they make pump guns that nice today? The whole action of that series was wonderful, much nicer than most of the more "modern" shotguns I have purchased.
(honest).
Did your mom actually BUY that monstrosity, or did she inherit it from a nutty goose-hunting uncle?
kAcknor Sez:
Three and a half inch magnums? Steel butt? Whoa... Last Monday I took my Mossburg 500 to the range and needed a few extra slugs. I stopped into a local Wally-World clone and they had 3" mag slugs on sale so I picked up a few boxes.
I shot 2 loads of 5 of Wolf standards, then loaded up the magnums. In a word: OUCH. One shot and the entire line stopped and looked to see what had made all the noise. :)
I still have the remains of the bruise on my right arm for not having it tucked up properly. I did fire the remaining four shells, but the rest came home to await a winter day and a heavy coat.
"tIqIpqu' 'ej nom tIqIp" (Hit them hard and hit them fast.)
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