i'm thinking about buying a gun

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in your vehicle ON YOUR person, correct?


are any of these legal?

No, that is not specified in the laws. The law states it must be a private vehicle, it must be a registed gun and the registered owner must be in the car. Also handguns in cars can be loaded and chambered while rifles and shotguns can be loaded but not have a round in the chamber.

Probably not, I don't think you can't have more than an 6 round magazine, which is standard on most semi-auto and pump action shotguns.
 
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If you're concerned about safety in the wilderness, do you really think a small bore handgun is going to do anything for you? A shotgun would be a good choice here too, but a high powered rifle would be even better. You want maximum penetration and damage here. You don't want to have to unload an entire clip and have the animal still coming at you, pissed off, dying, and wanting to take you with it.

Dude, they do have handguns that can stop bears, etc.(btw, handguns have "big bores" compared to rifle). Only thing is, those pistols are "big" pistols, which he says he doesn't want.
ie:
.460 Smith XVR
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I think you have too many specifications.

If you are hunting mice, a .22 will do for a side arm. But if you are hunting bears, that'll just piss it off. bad.

Personal protection you will want compact, light weight, and powerful.
Target shooting you will want a full size, heavy, and not so powerful.

Get specific and stop looking for uber wondergun.


P.S. Personal favorites:
Carry: Glock G19. 9mm. Compact, light weight, dependable as hell.

Home protection: Glock in waist band, 12ga sawed off shotty. first 2 shots are bird shot, the rest are 9 ball buck shot. If you dont get the hint, you will get dead. The reason I have the shotty is I have children who sleep in a different room, and the 9mm will just rip through the walls. Bird shot is safer. (Note: Pick up a clean shotty with smooth action (semi auto or pump) at the pawn shop. Take it home, chop it up. Refer to local laws. In texas, the barrel length to be legal is 18". Mine is 18 and 1/8th, just to be safe. You're only out $50-$80 bucks)

Target shooting: Custom M-40 sniper rifle. (and a couple of .22s just for fun)
 
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Yeah, you guys go ahead and shoot a charging bear or couger with a handgun. You'll be dead. But then, wild animal attacks never happen in Northern Cali. We have all of these trees but no large predatory animals native to the land. There's never been a time when handgun shells have been found next to a body that wasn't attacked and killed by the non-existant predatory animals.

it was big foot :ph34r:
wcbstv.com - Is Bigfoot Living In The California Forest?
 
no bigfoot is Hosmer

a full mag of .45 cal will destroy a Cougar. A full grown bear? If you know what you're doing. You might want something a touch bigger. My co worker bow hunts with a snubby .357 and he fears no bear
 
Dude. Everyone knows that Bigfoot lives in Oregon. :D

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Yep, those would make GREAT self defense weapons to have in a house with small children and a wife! Context owns you. ;)

sorry barking moonbat reality owns you

any firearm is safe in any functional home so long as it is secured and the family is properly educated on the respect of firearms. Actually those are safer then a shot gun because they're more easily locked away. Get something with a dove tail if your worried about kids getting ahold of it.

IF he was JUST talking home defense he could buy a 12 guage and load it with bird shot (less chance for wall penitration), he could lock it away in a gun chest in his bedroom. But a 12 gauge is not ideal for protection from woodland friends while hanging out with hunters.

He said he wanted A GUN, not 2-3 GUNS. My option is the best compramise between the different uses he wants to get out of it.
 
P.S. Personal favorites:
Carry: Glock G19. 9mm. Compact, light weight, dependable as hell.

Home protection: Glock in waist band, 12ga sawed off shotty. first 2 shots are bird shot, the rest are 9 ball buck shot. If you dont get the hint, you will get dead. The reason I have the shotty is I have children who sleep in a different room, and the 9mm will just rip through the walls. Bird shot is safer. (Note: Pick up a clean shotty with smooth action (semi auto or pump) at the pawn shop. Take it home, chop it up. Refer to local laws. In texas, the barrel length to be legal is 18". Mine is 18 and 1/8th, just to be safe. You're only out $50-$80 bucks)
I'm looking into buying my first gun and not only did I read good reviews on the G19, it was personally recommended to me by an avid gun collector.

I was also looking at a Sigarms MOSS-22-B MOSQUITO 22LR, Walther P22, or Smith & Wesson 22A for target shooting.

I was looking in to picking up a pump 12ga for the same reason you have one. But when you say bird shot vs. buck shot, what does that mean?

BTW-I will be taking gun courses and I want to get a hunting license, I'm just looking for a little knowledge first.
 
I was looking in to picking up a pump 12ga for the same reason you have one. But when you say bird shot vs. buck shot, what does that mean?

size of the bb's in the shell
buck shot = fewer number bigger mass balls
bird shot = lots of smaller pellets for a good spread
and slugs are just one hunk of lead
 
So a as far as overal damage to a target it would be slug, buck shot, then bird shot right?
 
its really gonna depend on range/distance

a slug at 100 yards will penetrate better than bird shot
but bird shot at point blank will completely remove someones head, where as a slug would prob only remove half of the head

but in general you would be correct, target penetration = slug, buck shot, then bird shot
but for home protection you don't want a slug
you want something that will have a wide spray pattern, so aiming isn't as important, and you also want something thats less likely to carry its lethality through the walls of your home

you can also get shotguns that are less powerful than a 12 gauge
if you're not used to guns, or aren't very big, a 12 gauge is gonna kick so hard that you'll never be able to get it back to the shooting plain fast enough
i personally have a 16 gauge and m1 carbine with alternating full metal jacket rounds in a 30 shot clip
i'm on the market for a 12 gauge but everything i want is pricey
 
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*edit* Wow, I typed slow.. got beat twice. Ah well, I'll leave the info anyway.

Kinda sorta.

Depends on what you mean by "overall damage".

A slug will hit hardest, and leave the biggest hole, but its only one shot. One shot from any gun can kill anyone, its all about placement. But sure, being hit in a non vital location with a 12 gauge slug is going to suck 15x worse than being hit in the same spot with say, a 9mm round. A slug will, however, sail through walls of a home. So that defeats the purpose.

Buck shot is big balls, think along the lines of store bought sling shot ammo. That would be somewhat less "powerful" than a single slug, but being multiple projectiles, it will make it more likely that you will hit the target, as well as leaving several holes in said target. It would be like being shot 9 times with a small caliber hand gun all at the same time. This inflicts massive and very deadly damage. Chances to hit and chance to hit something vital are multiplied by 9. (assuming 9 ball bucks shot, there are a gagillion different sizes) These will also sail through a wall. Which is why I keep bird shot first, cripple, move in, kill if needed.

Bird shot, although considered less deadly that the other two, (and certainly less deadly at longer range) inflicts horrifying damage at close range (aka in home gun fights). Hundreds of little tiny lead balls shread things at very close range. Shot across a living room (20 feet), a robber will be brought down by a retarded amount of pain. think of having 1000 dull needles stab you through the chest, neck, and face at one time, penetrating 1-3" deep. Its a surgeon's nightmare because he'll spend 5 hours digging around in your flesh and checking every hole for critical damage. If you live, you could get lead poisoning and die anyway. Also, those little balls like to get into arteries and kill you 2 days later when they lodge in your brain or trigger a heart attack. at very close range, say 8' or less it will just obliterate whatever you point it at. We're talking arms and legs being blown off, Heads going missing.. Messy to say the least.

I'd say the slug would be least deadly, in comparison to the other two. Buck shot being the most deadly.
 
Most everyone has covered all of the things I would talk about so the best advice i can offer you is practice as much as you possibly can. If you can take some basic hand gun courses at your local range.
 
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