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Thread: New Member

  1. #1
    I can't post links yet! Forum User
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    New Member

    Hello all! I'm Simantic, or Sim for short. I'm new here tonight. I stumbled across this site when researching the legality of shooting on my own property. We're first time homeowners just over a year now, and are just getting our first gun. I'm an Army vet, so it's not my first time handling a gun, but the first time I've legitimately owned my own...well, sort of. I guess my wife is actually going to be the owner because I can't get into Secretary of State to get my license updated with the address of our new home (she just recently renewed her license so hers is up to date). That doesn't bother me though. I know it won't be our last gun purchase. We're in our 40's, but only waited this long because we have kids and couldn't afford both a gun and a safe to keep it in. Some family friends are giving us a safe after they upgraded though, so it's finally a "safe" possibility. I've been out of a job for awhile, so we really can't afford much right now either, but we decided that with the way things have been lately, we don't want to wait until the anti-gunners make it next to impossible to get one. Plus, our kids are getting older and we want to make sure they learn about guns from us, not just movies and video games. Obviously, I'm not a hunter having never owned a gun before. I'm not against it in any way, in fact I love scamming my best friend to share the spoils with me. I just personally don't enjoy hunting. I do love target shooting though, and am anxious to be able to do so whenever I want to finally! I was a mechanic in the Army, so I didn't get to shoot nearly as much as I wanted to. Fortunately, my wife is fully on board with this new step too. We went over to some friend's house last week and she got to fire a gun (9mm Taurus G2C) for her first time since a BB gun when she was a kid. She did great, and really enjoyed it. We're both planning to take a CPL class after this pandemic garbage clears up. For now, we're doing some online training all together with our older kids to learn at least the basics.

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    Welcome to the site!

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    Administrator dramey82's Avatar
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    Thank you for your service, hello and welcome.
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  4. #4
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    to the forum of MGO and Thank you for your service.
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    MGO Member dsfoerster's Avatar
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    Welcome to MGO!


  6. #6
    MGO Member Roundballer's Avatar
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    Greetings from Imlay City "Gateway to the Thumb",

    Home of Vlasic Pickle.




    Thank you for your service

    The "Thumb" is still a pretty large area. There are several clubs where you might be able to pick up with a little more instruction. Maybe even a few competitions. That is all depending all of this virus nonsense.

    Depending on exactly WHERE you live, and if there is a decent back stop, shooting on your own land is acceptable. You need to look at the local ordinances to get the full story on it, but even then you might run into a few problems.


    Life Member, NRA, Lapeer County Sportsmen's Club Disclaimer: I Am Not A Lawyer. Opinions expressed are not representative of any organization to which I may belong, and are solely mine. Any natural person or legal entity reading this post accepts all responsibility for any actions undertaken by that person or entity, based upon what they perceived was contained in this post, and shall hold harmless this poster, his antecedents, and descendants, in perpetuity.

  7. #7
    I can't post links yet! Forum User
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    Thanks for the warm greeting! I'm glad to see this is an active forum with regular visitors.

    WARNING: I'm a story-teller. I'm not very good at brief summary style writing. I like to share every detail. So, if you can't stand long posts, I'm probably not the guy for you to follow.

    I just updated my profile to show "Tuscola County". I'm not a fearful person, but I have a healthy respect for what can be done on the internet, so I don't like to share too much personal information with anybody and everybody on the world wide web. I do live within driving distance to the Tuscola Conservation Club though, so a membership there is likely in my future.

    As far as shooting at home: I called the Tuscola County Sheriff's office on my way home to find out how to get the sales record to them during this COVID shutdown business (mail it in), and asked about shooting on my own property. They said it's legal, but we're responsible for where our shots end up and making sure we don't annoy the neighbors - common sense stuff (for sensible people, at least). That said, we won't be doing any shooting on our own property for a while as we definitely don't have any kind of back stop right now, but it's nice to know it's legal for the future.

    As far as our first gun purchase goes, we ended up even better off than expected.

    I was originally planning to get a Sig Sauer P320 Compact. It's a trustworthy brand, small enough to carry, has good reviews, and I like the modular features. It's a bit hard to find, but I finally tracked one down at Ben's Great Outdoors in Marlette. Unfortunately, we weren't as impressed as we expected once we had hands on it. It seems like a great handgun; just wasn't comfortable for us. Then they told me that Sig had discontinued the barrel swap kits (I liked the idea of being able to have different calibers without having to buy another whole gun), so the modular features weren't really that big of a deal anymore. Aftermarket is an option, but not worth the effort for a gun we didn't feel comfortable with to start.

    I should point out that we're pretty hard to please. My wife is tiny compared to me and my ape hands, and our budget really isn't flexible enough to afford two purchases right now. It's been hard to find something that's comfortable for both of us. I've fired a couple of Glocks in the past with friends, and they were good, but that was it - just "good" (to me - no offense Glock lovers). I never felt like it was so nice I just had to have one.

    We tried the Taurus G2C at a friend's house last week, and neither of us really liked it. It's a good gun, but it was just too small for my big hands so it never felt really stable to me. Plus, mechanically, it's just not as "refined" as some others. The slide release takes quite a bit of force; enough that my wife couldn't do it without pulling the slide a bit first. The trigger was finicky too. It worked great if you were careful to pull it perfectly straight back, but if you pulled just a bit to one side or the other it would catch pretty badly. They had two G2C's, and we all noticed that problem with both of them. With it being small in my hand anyway, it was really tough for me to not have that problem because my finger reached well past the "fingertip" pull. We also had problems with rounds jamming about halfway up the ramp into the barrel. I know there's a lot of factors to that: ammo quality, new gun break in, etc, but that still added to the list of reasons why we weren't impressed.

    The people at Ben's were really nice and patient with us, and we eventually ended up settling on the Smith & Wesson M&P M2.0 4" Compact. It was actually my top choice "on paper" before I had learned about the modular Sig, and then I just forgot about it. Turns out, it's perfect for us. It's very well balanced and just feels like it was designed for my hand. I especially love the semi-aggressive "sandpaper" grip texture. It sticks like velcro, but isn't uncomfortably aggressive and has enough texture. The Taurus G2C has the same type of texture, and I really liked it, but the G2C has a large bare curve that hits right on my calous pads on my palm, so there was no grip at the main contact point for my palm. The S&W has the bare curve too, but it's much thinner and farther back in the low-contact area in the middle of the palm so it grips great. We also tried a FN at Ben's, and their grips were way too aggressive. It felt like grabbing the pistol from "Law Abiding Citizen" - I was expecting it to inject me with pufferfish toxin. The M&P works out great for my wife as well. It comes with 4 different quick-swap palmswell inserts that makes it comfortable for her in less than a minute. We were really impressed.

    Ben's had it in stock for $519 - a bit more than we wanted to spend, but worth it for something that will work for both of us until we can get another just for her. Even if we were buying two so she could have her own, I still would have chosen this one because it really is just perfect for me, so that works great for our future plans too. It didn't come with night sights though, which drives the price up another $115 (assuming I can install them myself). Plus, they wouldn't let me buy it because we bought a house recently and my driver's license still has the old address on it. I can't get into Secretary of State with the COVID shutdowns to get it updated, and I hadn't done it before since it expires later this year and has to be replaced altogether anyway. They processed it in my wife's name instead, and got "flagged for delay" for some reason. Neither of us has anything other than a speeding ticket years ago on our record, so he figured it just timed out waiting for someone to approve it. Sadly, we left without a new gun that day.

    That turned out to be a good thing though. The next day, I spent some time online learning more about the gun (I'm quite the information hound). I knew I'd find cheaper prices online, but I didn't want to deal with the wait time and transfer fees. Plus, I like to support local businesses. However, when I stumbled across one place selling it for $399 and then another for $389, I figured a hundred bucks is worth at least calling. Ben's said they didn't have more than about $20-$25 of room to flex on the price, and their fee for receiving an online purchase is $40, so I politely asked them to go ahead and cancel it then because that was just too big a price difference for our tight budget. They were very gracious and understanding.

    My next call was to Randy's Hunting Center in Bad Axe, per my brother's suggestion, and I'm really glad I called! The guys there were patient, knowledgable, and helpful. Not only did they have what I wanted, but they had one they had got on a special purchase that had the night sights already installed for only $479. Well, I asked him to hold it for me, and headed that way as quick as I could. The whole process was simple, quick, easy, and very satisfying. The gun came in a hard case with three 15-round magazines, two adapter sleeves for 17-round magazines, four palmswell grip inserts, a takedown tool, and a cable lock. I walked out of there with the exact gun I wanted and all the ammunition I wanted (good sales on that too) for $597 altogether. He was even able to use my license with my automobile insurance proof that has the correct address on it to put it in my name.

    NOTE: For those in this area: I've heard from some other friends that some people don't like shopping at Randy's saying that they have poor customer service. I think this is really just a personal preference issue, not an actual performance issue. Admittedly, the guys weren't as "super-friendly" as some places, but that's not a bad thing depending on your preference. They were straightforward, matter-of-fact, and to-the-point - all in a totally polite manner, of course. That's the kind of shopping experience I like. I'm not there to be BFF's. Get to the point, show me what I'm here for, and be polite and friendly about it. They weren't beaming big fake smiles, but they weren't rude or pushy either. Just the right balance as far as I'm concerned.

    On the way back home, I stopped by our friend's house where we shot the Taurus last week to drop off some ammo we bought to replace what we used when we were there. Of course, we couldn't resist getting the new toy out to try it too. I'm even happier with my purchase now! It's SUCH a great pistol! Beautifully balanced, very comfortable, extremely stable, smooth, and accurate. I really don't have a lot of shooting experience, and this is honestly only the fifth time I've ever fired a handgun at all. At 7 yards out, I was able to put all 15 rounds in the black in a pretty decent group, with the third round being a dead-center bullseye. I was worried about how the trigger would feel with it being a double-action only, but it was buttery smooth with just the right amount of pressure. I didn't time my shots, but they were fairly quick, which reminds me of another positive. I had read in reviews that this gun was good for quickly lining back up after each shot, and they're right. It didn't kick too far, and was very quick and easy to get back in line for the next shot. I felt very confident with it. It may not be for everyone, but the Smith & Wesson M&P M2.0 4" Compact is perfect for me, and I'm very very happy!

    Also, I'm hooked now and anxious for the next purchase already. Don't tell my wife!

  8. #8
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    MGO Member CircuitRider's Avatar
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    to MGO discussion forums from along the river in Marysville.

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