I couldn't resist replying:
Ideal pistol?It's like the pistol of no-pistol.
You people have killed pistols for me. I don't have an ideal pistol anymore.
Since first posting here, I have gone from a bespoke personal weapon which cost like a used car and had every component, every jot and tittle, specifically chosen by me, based on consultation, consideration, and years of experience, all the way down to the brand of pins used and the angle and number of the cocking serrations, and now I'm carrying some disposable plastic wheelchock that could be fed into a wood chipper and replaced with any one of a quarter dozen different brands tomorrow without me caring the slightest. I hate you all.
So, this is your first time around the circle? Surely you left some gaps, some combinations untried. May you enjoy your next circumnavigation as much as the first.
ReplyDeleteHint: Get a bigger safe, again.
Ed,
ReplyDeleteYou seem to have missed my point.
Yes. Exactly this. Liberating isn't it?
ReplyDeleteThe pistol that can be known is not the True Pistol.
ReplyDelete;-)
I'm guessing you've been carrying 1911s for a while. As far as I'm concerned it's still okay to like that platform - and depend on it -- despite the popularity and lauded durability of newer designs.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I keep thinking about a M&P9 with thumb safety...
Mark
Not to show my sensitive side, but I went through some of the same things helping my then fiance plan our wedding.
ReplyDeleteThere are wedding forums that are just as full of 'open bar vs. cash bar vs. no bar' questions as gun forums are full of 9mm vs. .45
The ideal pistol is which ever one I need to justify buying next...
For me, the ideal pistol is the one that is there when I need it, and works when I activate it.
ReplyDeleteI'll take three of that one, please.
And the rest of you are on your own for figuring out your ideal pistol.
Any arguing beyond that is to be ignored.
Right now I am carrying a Luger. If I had a LeMat, I would work it into the rotation now and then.
ReplyDeleteto quote john wayne in "big jake" "It"s a gun ain't it? function over form and love your favavorites
ReplyDeleteHumor. Some people miss it completely.
ReplyDeleteIs Soviet Russia, pistol chooses you.
ReplyDeleteWill your refusal to swear undying allegiance to the 1911 - especially by one particular manufacturer or another - have you branded a "Glock homo" again?
ReplyDelete;-)
Precisely: the WalMart wheel-chock - because if you ever have to actually like, *use* it, it will be swiftly taken from you and disappear into the gaping maw of the Judicializer, where it will be ground into a fine paste and used to smooth the Wheels of Justice and Law Enforcability - and if/when you ever need another one WalMart is there, everywhere...
ReplyDeleteMy ideal pistol would attached to a rifle.
ReplyDeleteI would think working in a gun store with a very skilled gunsmith, and seeing something from nearly every brand come through in need of repair, would have crushed that whole "perfect gun" concept out of your head long before fanboys on the internet would have.
ReplyDeleteThis post has completely destroyed any confidence I may have had in my ability to communicate my thoughts via the written word.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry Tam, you say something? =)
ReplyDeleteThis minds me of those radio shows where they ask some obscure question (38% of the people don't know how to do this?) and they go through a long series of people guessing at the answer.
ReplyDeleteDo we get a T-shirt for giving the appropriate comment?
I think the phenomina in question is similar to what happened when you started getting "high sports car" modeling on $12,000 frames. Maybe not fancy enough, but the GEO Storm comes to mind.
If the pistol was attached to a rifle then you wouldn't have far to lean to pick it up, or fight your way back to it.
ReplyDeleteI bought the P220's because they're in the same caliber as the gun I didn't want to lose to the grinding teeth of Judicializer.
I'm pretty sure I got it. I remember shopping for stereo equipment when I was an audio geek, comparing this & that feature and spec, to get the perfect one. Now I just listen to youtube on a laptop. I do like my Para P12 so much that when I finally found another one at the 1500 Saturday, it went home with me.
ReplyDeleteThere is no ideal pistol. The ideal is to improve your skill so whatever pistol you use matters less than your inherent ability to put rounds on target.
ReplyDeleteOr, at least that's my interperation of Tam's koan.
4" Smith & Wesson 681 don't need a reason.
ReplyDeleteI've bought and sold numerous polymers and semi-autos in 9mm and .45 ACP but I'll never part with my trusty .357 magnum.
Simple. Efficient. Goes "bang!" every time I pull the trigger. Don't have to worry about FTFs, stovepipes or any of that stuff, either.
Wheel gun...Just Do It
If it helps, what I saw in the apparent inkblot is "is pistol, is simple machine, if it works correctly when I use it that's ideal".
ReplyDelete...still wrong?
Ditto, LabRat. Don't obsess over what anyone else says or does. Whatever works for you...works.
ReplyDeleteMy Model 19 saved my life on two occassions, although I now carry a semi-auto.
Girl; don't you go abusin' a perfectly good wood chipper like that. -- Lyle
ReplyDeleteThis post has completely destroyed any confidence I may have had in my ability to communicate my thoughts via the written word.
ReplyDeleteTam, maybe you should stop trying to be the Dennis Miller of the gun world and just get to your point!
It's like Burt Reynolds and Vincent Van Gogh eulogizing Geronimo.
Stolen from http://wiki.joshuajamesslone.name/Dennis+Miller+Reference+Generator
Hmmm. The point I got from this post was "Plato is wrong."
ReplyDeleteAll right, I'll throw in.
ReplyDeleteA long time ago I owned a book called "Zen Training." Pretty goofy book but in it there was a section about a person's path through Buddhist enlightenment.
Starts off with a sketch of a fellow who doesn't even know there's such a thing as enlightenment. He's fat, happy, walking around in a Buddhist version of "Condition White." Next picture is of him sort of troubled, as though he knows there's something he's missing but doesn't know what it is.
Next picture is of him catching a glimpse of enlightenment, which is emblematically represented by an ox (Why an ox is used and not a horse or a donkey or a Volvo is not gone into but that's the way it is with Buddhists ain't it?).
After a few more pictures, he's chased the ox, caught it, rode it around a while, and ultimately lets the ox go. You see him back to being fat and happy and, to all outward appearances, back in "Condition White" again.
Only you know it's not so. He has achieved the "Buddha nature" by going through the struggle, coming out the other end and letting it go.
This is where Tam is.
gvi
Rob Reed, LabRat, Mr Evilwrench, and GVI get it.
ReplyDeleteUGA wino,
Gosh, I wish I owned a S&W revolver... ;)
Yeah, the ideal handgun? One that would work and work for you everytime you'd need it.
ReplyDeleteIf I were given $5,000 to spend on a handgun, I'd buy a polymer 9mm of an undisclosed brand and the necessary accessories (<$1,000), attend a few handgun courses ($2,000???) and spend the rest on ammo (10,000rds).
Well, when I grind my Glock's slide into the concrete (asphalt, gravel, et al) as I'm under a rig or something and I end up thinking about it at all, which isn't always, I think how fortunate I am that it's not a multi-thousand-dollar custom built ('cause then I'd be sick about it).
ReplyDeleteOnce I wondered why I didn't have a holster that covers the whole front end, and then I realized that the slide can take a lot more punishment than any holster. -- Lyle
Bitter...mustn't be bitter, Tam. Gosh, the ideal pistol? How about the one you're most familiar and comfortable with, and with which you can hit the target? Maybe GVI is right and this is a Zen question....but it makes about as much sense as a lot of other questions I've seen on gun boards.
ReplyDeleteI have a 50 year old virginal Colt LW Commander that was done into a full house custom by one of the best 1911 gunsmith in the universe. It is your ideal carry 1911. It cost a f'in fortune. It is worth every penny.
ReplyDeleteAs a result, I carry a Glock. It has no sharp edges and I don't have to worry about banging into things. Also I can leave it in the car if I have to.
Lyle,
ReplyDelete"Well, when I grind my Glock's slide into the concrete ... I think how fortunate I am that it's not a multi-thousand-dollar custom built..."
You might want to close your eyes, then... ;)
This post has completely destroyed any confidence I may have had in my ability to communicate my thoughts via the written word.
ReplyDeleteI think that pretty much sums up the whole blogging experience :)
Tam, you've inspired me.
ReplyDeleteAgainst my better judgment, I think I'm going to have to try my hand at DAO autopistols.
Heretofore I've only monkeyed with SA-only (1911, BHP and C96 which was, if you can believe it, my first "carry" pistol) and SA/DA (Beretta M9). I don't count my revolvers.
Never monkeyed around with Glocks because they don't fit my hand, and also never any of the newer pistols because I just didn't know or care all that much about hammerless autos.
Time for me to open my mind a bit.
My Hi-Power, though, is still NOT for sale ;^D
gvi
WV: bammery - what I'm a-fixin' to do with DAO autos.
Basically I believe it all has to do with who and where and what they used.
ReplyDeletePeople tend to like whatever their local environment tells them that they should.
Or sometimes what their job requires, in my case it is a Sig. Had I went other ways it may have been Glock. Life sometimes dictates as to what is best not always what is wise.
Is that so?
ReplyDeleteMy ideal pistol?
ReplyDeletea 13mm Gyrojet with modified Noveske tritium sights in an IWB crossdraw holster.
Wait, that wasn't your point was it?