Here’s a subject that I’ve been wanting to blog about for a while now. Self defense. Specifically, the most effective self defense option: Handguns. I am a gun lover plain and simple. I was a gunsmith and federally licensed firearms dealer and manufacturer. I was a unit armorer in the United States Army, a military gunsmith, serving with the field artillery, “King of Battle”. I have been collecting firearms for more than 20 years. I live in the forest where I, and my friends, can shoot on the property at any time we like. I met my wife in the Army on a firing range. She can outshoot me with many of the weapons we own. We are up to five gunsafes now and really need a sixth. We likes our guns!
Handguns are an effective means of self defense that can be employed by anyone. I have trained a wheelchair bound woman, who is darned close to quadraplegic, to use, and use well, a revolver. The only person I can’t train is one who refuses, for whatever reason, to touch a firearm. Good luck with that pepper spray… The first rule of a gunfight is to bring a gun. Nuff said?
It doesn’t matter if you’re a man or woman, straight, gay, or bi, we all are potential victims of violent crimes. Steps can, and should, be taken to reduce our exposure to these crimes but there is always the chance of a random encounter that might just put your life on the line.
Carrying a firearm for self defense carries great responsibility. I won’t go into this as there are many who are more qualified to give you that information better than I could ever could. A quick google search will return many options. I may post some links on this in a future post.
This post is simply to share what works for me and Sweetpea. Handguns that suit our tastes and needs. Here are a couple of handguns that we own and carry for defensive purposes.
My preferred piece is the Taurus Millenium Pro PT-145 in .45ACP (.45 Auto). It is lightweight, ultra compact, has a high capacity (10 rounds), can fit in the waistband of virtually everything I wear, and has a cavernous bore that can throw a very big bullet at very bad people.
Taurus Millenium Pro PT-145 Sub-Compact .45 Automatic
Taurus Millenium Pro PT-145 on the Taurus website It’s about the largest caliber in the smallest package that you can carry. 10 rounds is a lot. I hope I never even have to fire one round, but it’s good to know that round has 9 brothers to back him up if he needs it. This is not designed to be a target grade handgun but it can hold its own. It will shoot a 3 inch group at 25 yards if I do my part.
Another handgun we carry is the Ruger LCP in .380ACP (.380 Auto). LCP stands for Lightweight Compact Pistol though I like to call it the “Little Cute Pistol”. Cute but effective… Some debate the effectiveness of the .380 Auto as a defensive round. I don’t know about your tolerance but I don’t function well with any size holes in me and would quickly lose my motivation after the first hole was installed in me. Chances are that bad people have similar preferences to mine with regard to close range lead poisoning. This handgun is incredibly small, small enough to be entirely concealed behind my open hand, super lightweight, I can carry it in a shirt pocket quite easily, and has a capacity of seven rounds.
- The Ruger LCP in .380 Automatic
The Ruger LCP on Ruger’s website
This is the one I drop in my pocket when I’m making a large cash withdrawl at the ATM, running into the quik-mart, or even just strolling around the property. It’s only a touch over 5 inches in length and a hair over 3/4 inch thick. Teensy.
Feel free to leave questions with the comment feature. I’d be happy to offer what advice I can to those interested. If there’s any interest, I may, in a future post, share some home defense options in the way of shotguns and rifles.
You’ll note that I do not refer to any “less than lethal” options for self defense. It’s because I don’t believe in them. Period. If you want to face down a desperate thug, someone desperate enough to pull a knife or a gun on you, with a can of Mace, a puny knife, or a flimsy baton, that’s your choice. I will do everything in my power to return home each day when I leave the house. It’s not a matter of killing, it’s a matter of surviving.
Foxfur plinking with a Professional Ordnance Carbon-15 pistol in .223 Remington. A Ruger Vaquero in .45 Long Colt is slung around his waist.
The Carbon-15 is a carbon fiber, instead of aluminum, AR-15 pistol that fires the .223 Remington / 5.56mm NATO rifle round, the same round as our soldiers fire in their M16 / M4's.
This is another favorite pistol I carry when hiking around on our property. Fun!
Foxfur Amused 
Love the Carbon-15. I don’t own one, but I have shot one. Good for keeping ammo compatibility if you own an AR. I would love to CC a .45, but I’m a super-skinny guy. I carry a Bersa Thunder380 CC. It’s a relatively cheap pistol, but it’s accurate, and goes bang every time I pull the trigger.
I very much like the Bersa Thunder. It’s a dependable and affordable CC handgun.
For ammo compatibility we have a Ruger Mini-14 as well as the Superior M4 and Bushmaster XM-15F2S (pictured below). The XM weighs in at 11lbs!
The grenade launcher is a Cobray 37mm smoothbore. We like it…
I’m personally fond of the Sig Sauer P226 – just something really sexy about that weapon. It comes in 9mm, .40, and .45 ACP and while I haven’t decided to buy one, I’m thinking I’d like it in .40; 9mm seem kinda wimpy and, besides, all of the crooks where we live carry 9mm. We have so much drug violence in our area, along with home invasions, attacks on the elderly – crazy shit. The thing I learned about guns is that you never pull one unless you intend to kill someone; I don’t mean pull it out and wave it around; I’m talking draw the weapon, line someone up in the sights and squeeze until they fall down and never get up again.
It’s one hell of a responsibility and, well, I don’t know about where you live, but the police here aren’t too fond of citizens who shoot other citizens because, sometimes, mistakes can be made and these kinds of mistakes can be fatal. I’ve had so many 2nd Amendment arguments with people it isn’t funny and, yeah, the only reason to have a weapon living in a city like mine is to kill people who fuck with you; the only hunting I have to do is finding a parking space at the supermarket.
:: scritchin madly::
So, I carry a Walther PPK/s in .380, Charter Arms “bulldog” in .44 sp. or E.A.A. Witness, in .45 ACP., each, depending on circumstance and dress (or slacks).
To me, ( and I know this is debatable), the best weapon, is something you can “hit” with……..cartridge is secondary, to hitting your target.
” a hit with a .22 is better than a miss with a .44″ is what I go by.
A .22 LR H.V. round, is deadly, no doubt about it. Some will say the penetration characteristics of that is superior to the 9mm, just less damage and Ft.lbs. of force.
What you say about ” a hole in you” can come into play there, too.
The woman in a wheelchair I taught to shoot uses an H&R 9-shot .22 revolver. She was consistently able to put 6 on target using CCI Stingers. Good enough for me and bad enough for the thugs!
Good to see you around, Yiggy 🙂
well,
good to be around, Ff…….thanks.
yeah, exactly, shoot what you can hit with.
and, “Mozambique” ’em, if you’re unsure…………..
Scritch scritch… THAT was fun!!
I used to keep a Baretta 25 close by at all times… while it wasn’t too bad (and looked cute), and I could hide it pretty no matter what I was wearing (with a few exceptions -grins-) I think it thought it was a woodstove… as it would stovepipe pretty consistently. Say about once every other mag. Not acceptable. Add to that it’s notorious gutlessness… and atrocious l-accuracy – it resides in a collectors safe, instead of an inside the bra holster. 😉
While I prefer under most circs my Officer’s Model, there are times it’s just too damn big to keep undisclosed. I tried out a PPK/s, and found while weighty and a little larger, it’s a good substitute for Ol’ Faithless.
Keep up the good work, see you around the dust.
“you know who”
I choose either my Glock 30 or my Charter Arms Bulldog .44 special. And yes, for up close and personal defense I feel these guns in .45 acp and .44 spl are optimal, solid choices.