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The reality of taking a human life is far worse than anyone can imaging. Even you......
I don't have to imagine what its like to look into a man's eyes as I end his life. Its an image that will be with me for the rest of my days. Though I know I can do it again, I fervently hope I won't have to.
Last edited by Nighteyes; 12-13-2011 at 12:41 PM..
I live in SE Florida and dislike criminals. I am prepared to guard my family against a criminal who may make the wrong decision and break into our home. However, I hope and Pray a criminal doesn't.... I just want to stop the criminal not kill him/her so I have several excellent and reliable 380's, high end 9mm and .357 handguns tucked away in my safe. I also have proper Florida CCW license so I am usually legally armed for protection...
We as a group of Vietnam Combat Vets who live in Florida go wild pig hunting... We go in spurts and never go in a group of more than 4 at a time for our own safety. Each has GPS for land location because we never want to fire in the wrong direction. I go with the group that uses weapons and I use a 9mm handgun and .357 Henry rifle or a .357 handgun because I feel more at ease.... The remaining group of VN Vets only go with dogs because they do not like the sight of the mess.
The Hunt:
Most of the time we seem to see the wild pigs that are 125 - 175 lbs. Very large ones up to 350 lbs have been spotted but they are still illusive to us...But still a pair of 3" tusks on a 150 lb beast is nutting to fool around if one gets an angry spell and feels like coming afta you.......I had one charge me in Vietnam but none here, yet..
We hunt for wild pigs on a few privately owned spots of land. The largest is around 4-6 miles long and 3 miles wide. Kinda nice when I use a .357 rifle or handgun.. No crops there but pigs that seem to ruin the other land by diggging up and chowing down on restricted farming areas..They can really destroy a man's farm in a matter of a few days. Hundreds of thousands of $$.$$ go down the drain and it is unfair. Some farms are so large the farmer goes around on horse, 4 wheeler or plane....
A .22 magnum will do the trick for some pigs and gators but we do shoot the pigs because they kinda over populate and ruin orchards and crops on hundreds of acres of crops in surrounding fields.
Preparation:
We do find out if the farmers are in their fields and we plan our events around their schedule before we go out to hunt. Baiting is essential for us and we do it all the time. We give the animal away to the locals and they love it. I am not a wild eater but enjoy the hunt for the good of the farmers.
Oh....The dogs do have GPS collars and they become fanatic when the smell the wild things.. They're off like a bullet and sometimes travel hundreds of yards ahead of the tracker.....
The dog trackers have one GPS The team that uses weapons each have a GPS. We also use GPS for our own safety because we need to know each of our placement directions when we plant our cans on the ground or preferrably up a tree and ready for a pig.......... One time my buddy fell asleep while waiting up a tree so now he has to tie himself in the tree so he will not fall out....
Wrap up:
Our main concern is to stay out of trouble from the eyes of a criminal and help our family, friends and neighbors do whatever we can to help....
For a beginner, I'll join in with those who are recommending a double action revolver. A .38 special will get the job done. A decent Taurus, used, should cost you less than $300 and there are plenty around for $200 if you go looking. Reliable, accurate, and will do the job. Maybe not as good as a .357, but there is a reason they were the favorite of cops everywhere for so many years. They work.
One of my favorite guns to shoot at the range is my old Taurus model 83 in .38 special. Very accurate and no kick at all.
Ok, so I don't really know much about guns. But, I decided to purchase one. It's really just for self defense. Nothing else. I really do love the Beretta U22. Very nice design and it looks awesome, AND it's relatively affordable. It comes in different versions and I'm talking about the 4.5 barrel version because that one is 8.8 inches long. But now I was told a 22 might not be the best caliber for self defense. Honestly, I did not even know there was such a big difference in firepower between all those calibers.I went to Academy and looked at some 380. The design just sucks, but I guess that's ok. The only one I really do like in terms of the design is the Beretta anyway. I don't want to spend much money and would like to stay at around 250 Dollars. It just needs to be small ( no more than 8-9 inches long ) and at least a 380. Or would a 22 still do the job? I don't want to kill anybody but someone told me heard of someone shooting 6 times and he still was running around. And if somebody breaks into your house and has possibly a gun himself, I guess that wouldn't help you much. So that didn't do much. Of course, that's just what I was told. Academy has a 9mm on its website for 300, but it's pretty ugly ( I know, doesn't matter that much) and I don't think I need a 9mm. That's too much. Does anybody have some input?
hi
any kind of fire-gun can kill, anyway here we use the 22 caliber to sportive activity, take a look at the last short gun-barrel beretta model cal 9--- ( 9 x 21 ) it has 15 bullets plus 1 if you get a second bullet magazine...... you will be armed by 31 bullets.
trust me in case of fire conflict you will shot maximun 4 or 5 time, l'm talking about a urban criminal event, if you are a soldier consider that the beretta cal 9 is born to be used in the battle field it's a war-gun, 31 bullets are a good option
There's an old saying, you'd rather hit somebody with a .22 than miss them with a .45. A .22 is not an ideal self defense round but it will definitely injure an assailant and follow up shots would be fast and recoil minimal. Haven't more people been killed by .22s than any other round? There was a local incident recently where somebody shot someone with a .380 once and the person died later in the hospital.
If you don't want to kill somebody, don't get a handgun. Get a handgun you can handle. A good small 5 shot .38 special revolver would be a little more expensive than what you want to pay but maybe a Taurus or a cheaper manufacture would be closer. That would be a lot easier to carry( if you wanted to and legally). A 6 shot .380 semi auto would even be a little cheaper. I once saw a pig shot( at a fair) with a .22 in the head and it died instantly. I probably could have stood not to see that as a kid but later the butcher showed us the skull and the round. The .22 didn't fully penetrate the skull but was sticking just inside it and a splinter of bone hit the pigs brain. BTW, the pig knew they were coming to kill it because it screamed like a banshee right before they shot it. The things you remember.
There are other considerations. Your bullet may go through a wall or an assailant.
...And a hit with a .45 is better than ether!
While it's true that hits are what matter, you also need to STOP the threat.
What happens to the person who attacked you the next day (live or die) doesn't matter if they killed you before they bled out.
I'd not go below 9mm/38 Special myself... (WITH quality HP's)
You need a .22lr first, to save you 20c a shot while you fire the 1000's of rds that it takes to get good. In fact, you need a quality AirSoft gun before the .22, to learn all you can without having to pay range fees and driving costs to the range. Also, with face/throat protection, you can learn things "man vs man", that you can't learn with any sort of live ammo. You have to learn to shoot from wierd positons, very swiftly, on movers, while you move, in the dark, (with and without a flashlight) with one hand or both hands, while using cover, etc, and that all costs a bundle if you are using a centerfire, even if you reload your own ammo.
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