Do you keep your handguns the same?

I don't for the most part. I have my "working guns" and my "collecting guns". My "working guns" are all generally the same caliber, same size, and same basic manual of arms. So I practice, carry, and compete with CZ75/P07. But I have really never met a pistol I didn't like, so at this point I don't choose to limit my "collecting" side when I can afford it.
 
I want to be proficient with any guns I come upon. I like shooting any kind of pistols from revos to autos of any caliber.
For competition guns I tend to like metal SA pistols. Have 9mm and .40.

For carry guns I carry and use 9mm /.380 Glocks. Mostly because I just want them to work and don't care too much about them and view them as basic tools and don't shoot them a lot.
 
NKD said:
I want to be proficient with any guns I come upon. I like shooting any kind of pistols from revos to autos of any caliber.
For competition guns I tend to like metal SA pistols. Have 9mm and .40.

For carry guns I carry and use 9mm /.380 Glocks. Mostly because I just want them to work and don't care too much about them and view them as basic tools and don't shoot them a lot.
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Shouldn't you be shooting the gun you carry, a lot?
 
jmccracken1214 said:
Shouldn't you be shooting the gun you carry, a lot?
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I don't. My most frequently carried guns get shot maybe two mags every four months. Pull trigger gun goes boom, target gets acceptable hits, put away, shoot something interesting.

My observation is a high level of proficiency with one handgun translates to an above average level of proficiency with most handguns, barring some ergonomic limitation or dramatically different and not intuitive control.

Drawing from concealment however is another story and one I should certainly practice more.
 
Absolutely, but I think it's a mistake to train with your EDC exclusively. As an example, practicing with a double action revolver made me a better shot in general, including my glocks.
 
Ikarus1 said:
They say beware of the man who only owns one gun (or one type I guess). Personally, I think that's BS. I say beware of the man who knows how to take any firearm and hit COM at 25ft.
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PERFECT!!!!! I always countered the one gun man theory with....If he only has one gun he probably doesn't have enough money for practice ammo.
While this old saying may be true, in 60 years of shooting I have never met such a person.
 
jmccracken1214 said:
Shouldn't you be shooting the gun you carry, a lot?
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Naw. Hard to drive the Honda Civic much when you have a porsche and a ferrari in the garage!

I practice for what I do: competition and that sort of thing. I shoot for sheer fun of it. I do practice a bit with the carry guns, but don't like cleaning them, lol.
I ain't tactical, am not a "gunfighter" or "warrior" anything like that, nor do I want to be or train to be. And I ain't that good at competition either.

But you wouldn't want me shooting at you, that is for sure!
 
BatteryOaksBilly said:
PERFECT!!!!! I always countered the one gun man theory with....If he only has one gun he probably doesn't have enough money for practice ammo.
While this old saying may be true, in 60 years of shooting I have never met such a person.
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Yes sir. And I will say out of ALL my firearms, the one that has leveled up my skill the most would have to be the little 5.5" barreled H&R 949 22lr. That little 9 shot wonder has about a 15lb double action trigger pull, and a nice light 4lb SA one.

I also struggle to see the half-round cowboy front sight post, so I painted it and went thru a box of Federal bulk ammo over the spring and summer. If you can master that SOB of a DA trigger and still hit steel at 20ft, then you can shoot anything.
That goes for all my wheelguns. They have simply made me a better handgun shooter. Plus easier to clean up brass when you just dump into a bucket after spin the magic wheel around.
 
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I have Grandpa help me with an exercise I like to do back at my range.
I have a comp-tac holster called the omni. Kydex. It holds all the double stack glocks, M&P's and walthers. They fit nice, a good holster for the range.
It also holds K Frame revolvers, not like the plastics..but good enough that they sit down in it and nestle and work fine for the draw.

I have 7 guns that will fit in this holster and all of them are different. I stage them..semi's loaded w/empty chamber, revolvers with full cylinder. Then I go to the line with an empty holster and I close my eyes. Grandpa comes up behind me and puts one of those guns in the holster, (owb @ 3 o'clock) I don't know which one.
When Grandpa says GO I open my eyes, draw and shoot.

Before that gun clears the holster I know which one it is and instantly everything I know about that gun floods me. The semi's need to be chambered, the revolvers are ready, safety or not, caliber expectations, trigger expectations, how the sights work on this one, how it throws the bullets I feed it, how many bullets it has. Grandpa likes to mess with me too. Pull out the 3rd round in the cylinder, swap to an empty mag when I'm not lookin, put a gun I already shot back in there.

I don't even know that it can be called developing muscle memory or auto re-flexing or anything like that. I would call it an awareness exercise I guess. Simply put, all it does it prepare you to expect the unexpected that you already know, but never think about.
 
Almost exclusively 1911/2011 variants, mostly in 9 and 22. It's what I like and have shot enough that it is second nature. I have actually shot very little else except the try them out. I do have an M&P9 that strays from the theme, but with the Apex FS trigger it points and feels almost like a 1911 without a safety. I suspect that if you substituted one with a 1911 safety I wouldn't notice since I automatically sweep off the safety around 45 degree low ready on the draw.
 
Friday said:
I have Grandpa help me with an exercise I like to do back at my range.
I have a comp-tac holster called the omni. Kydex. It holds all the double stack glocks, M&P's and walthers. They fit nice, a good holster for the range.
It also holds K Frame revolvers, not like the plastics..but good enough that they sit down in it and nestle and work fine for the draw.

I have 7 guns that will fit in this holster and all of them are different. I stage them..semi's loaded w/empty chamber, revolvers with full cylinder. Then I go to the line with an empty holster and I close my eyes. Grandpa comes up behind me and puts one of those guns in the holster, (owb @ 3 o'clock) I don't know which one.
When Grandpa says GO I open my eyes, draw and shoot.

Before that gun clears the holster I know which one it is and instantly everything I know about that gun floods me. The semi's need to be chambered, the revolvers are ready, safety or not, caliber expectations, trigger expectations, how the sights work on this one, how it throws the bullets I feed it, how many bullets it has. Grandpa likes to mess with me too. Pull out the 3rd round in the cylinder, swap to an empty mag when I'm not lookin, put a gun I already shot back in there.

I don't even know that it can be called developing muscle memory or auto re-flexing or anything like that. I would call it an awareness exercise I guess. Simply put, all it does it prepare you to expect the unexpected that you already know, but never think about.
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Friday, this is a grand idea! We have done the Guatamalan Steakhouse drill with an unknown gun under the napkin. I like your way better.
 
BatteryOaksBilly said:
Friday, this is a grand idea! We have done the Guatamalan Steakhouse drill with an unknown gun under the napkin. I like your way better.
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Thank you sir. We have a lot of fun with it. Everyone especially likes it when Grandpa succeeds in tricking me. Tricks with the auto's, like an
empty mag, I usually catch before I get the gun to line-of-sight. You can feel that empty mag. But taking the one round out of a revolver gets me almost every time. Best way to ride that out and still look cool is not flinch, which is easier said than done especially with the magnums.
Grandpa doesn't over-play the trickery. He waits until I'm comfortable and then throws me a curve ball.

I used to just look away when Grandpa holstered the gun, but I found closing the eyes adds another element of challenge as it takes a moment for your eyes to acclimate when you open them.

The holster is a critical element I would say. This omni holster is what inspired me...hey it holds 3 guns! Wonder what we can do with it...
The holster has to be able to 'work well'. It doesn't have to fit every gun perfect, but it can't be so weird that the gun presents differently. IE the grip and trigger should rest at the same place, no snags and drags, etc. I have more than 7 guns that will 'fit' this holster, but the others are just too different and don't ride well, and the possibility of a fumble becomes unacceptable.

Comptac makes this holster in 4 different styles, and they're completely adjustable for cant as well as ambidextrous.
https://comp-tac.com/qb-holster-owb-all-kydex-modular-holster-q-line-comp-tac/
The holster works well and is built well. It has a clip that attaches to the belt so It can be taken on and off easily. But this clip won't fit over a belt loop so if you normally holster over a loop you will have to adjust fore or aft a-bit. They say the holster is good for range, competition or concealed carry. It's not the best choice by far for competition or carry, but it works great for range duty. It's also ugly as hell, obviously more 'tool' oriented than pretty.

Comp-tac isn't the only one who make these things. I saw 3 or 4 different kinds on Amazon. One of em supposed to hold eighty guns or something. But you will need something of more substance than an Uncle Mikes.

Obviously I'd consider this an exercise for well-experienced shooters and their helper.
You need to try this one Billy, you guys would have a lot of fun with it.
 
We WILL follow up on this. We are shutting down today for the first time in 15 years. Weather is wet and cool. We have folks on the road and tied up with the holiday festivities. I, of course, will be shooting today. If only a little, I won't stop even for a day. This is a grand scheme you have, I like it.
 
BatteryOaksBilly said:
PERFECT!!!!! I always countered the one gun man theory with....If he only has one gun he probably doesn't have enough money for practice ammo.
While this old saying may be true, in 60 years of shooting I have never met such a person.
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I have run into several of those one-gun people in my 60 years of shooting. Most have been people with whom I hunted out in the sticks who were not gun nuts but who had one gun, often a single barrel 12 gauge, they used for hunting. They did not have money to go to a range and practice but rather honed their skills on rabbits, squirrels, deer, and the like. They hit where they aimed or they had a hungry family that evening. They had been shooting, probably with the same one gun, since they were small. One old gentleman was given a new side by side by his family but continued to use his single barrel because the double was too heavy and because he almost never needed more than one shot.

That way of life is not as common as it once was.
 
I buy and shoot whatever catches my eye. That tends to be a motley assortment of odd guns or old military guns.
 
no... while I appreciate the differences of my guns, sadly I must admit I may no longer be great with any ONE of them...and might have to settle as mediocre with ALL of them... most likely truth is I haven't had much practice with any of them lately...… but I am excited to be shooting two fisted next time at Billys.
 
I own 2 pistols suitable for concealed carry, a Walther PPS and a Taurus Millennium Pro G2. I've decided to just keep the Taurus for when I leave the PPS somewhere (like my car) or when it dies which will probably be never. I really like the Taurus but they are just so different in feel and trigger pull, one has a safety and one does not.

I don't see how training with two platforms can be as effective as sticking with one. I've never understood the concept of a "carry rotation", to me it just sounds like an attempt at justifying owning multiple carry guns. :p

I can see different platforms for different seasons, i.e. bigger in winter, smaller in summer, but Monday is Glock day, Tuesday is SIG day, etc. is just silly.
 
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I have a mix of handgun types, but I've slowly been thinning down my collection of auto loaders. I have a Ruger SR9 and SR9C both suitable for CCW, and a S&W airweight 38 for pocket carry. I've got a war trophy luger from my great uncle, and my father's TC contender as well, but all of my favorite handguns to shoot are wheelguns.

I shoot my SR9C really well, because I practice with it a lot, but I prefer to shoot a 4" S&W 357.

I really want to get a 2-3" S&W 357 that I can use for CCW as well.
 
I have striker fired and SA/DA w/ decocker but I don't have any pistols with a thumb safety.
 
Not really by design but by shooting a bunch of them, I found that CZs are best for me, so I really only own them. I do own a couple M&Ps but they are mainly for my daughters. They don’t care for the CZs, so they shoot the M&Ps. Since they are still new to shooting, I will be borrowing or buying other handguns for them to try (Springfield, Glock, etc), see which ones shoot best for them and then buying a couple of those. Works out great for me because I then get to shoot other brands and manual of arms
 
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