Getting a new carry pistol

[Dr Mordrid]

I've been carrying a SIG SAUER P239 in .40 Smith & Wesson for quite a while, but even though its a compact gun it was a bit too bulky in some outfits. Instead of going down in caliber to something like a .380 (think James Bond's Walther) which would not have near the stopping power I decided to go for a sub-compact .40: the SIG P250sc, which I pick up on Wednesday.

The P250sc's a nice little polymer frame gun (very light) that is highly modular: you can easily swap the firing mechanism into an X-Change kit (which includes a new frame, magazine, slide and barrel) to convert it into a 9mm or .45 ACP. Another nicety is that it has a rifled barrel for accuracy, which a lot of pistols don't have these days - those that don't have octagonal "polygonal rifling" (Glock) which pretty much means jacketed bullets only.

Anyhow, this is what she'll look like -

[ALBPM]

Nice!!!

I got this little Kimber a year ago and just put the night sights, VZ grips and extended magwell on it. It has the alloy frame so is lighter than it looks.

I prefer .45acp for carry...Just in case...LOL!!!

[ALBPM]

And the rest of my .45 collection:


Les Baer Heavy Weight Monolith


Les Baer Stinger - This one gets carried a lot also.

I put the slim VZs and SA slim line magwells on both my Baers


And my customized Springfield which started out life as a GI model.

[ALBPM]

I got a P500 Universal Sight tool from Brownell's and it works great!!

The front sight was real dim on my 5 year old Les Baer Stinger so I replaced it with a new Trijicon front sight....

Baer uses a proprietary hidden pin in the front part of the sight. They do not drill all the way through the slide which makes it difficult to remove. You have to drill it out or cut through the sight behind the pin.

I Picked up a high speed diamond cutting wheel for my Dremel on the way home from work and installed the sight.

The diamond wheel cut through the Les Baer front sight like butter. I cut down to about 1/16" from the bottom. I then used some dikes to grab the front portion and twisted it right off the slide.

I then put the slide in my P500 Universal Sight Tool and aligned it to the base of the front sight.



Got it out easily....



You can see the original sight with the front portion with the hidden pin
sitting on my bench on the left side of the P500. The "pusher bolt" has been moved to the left side
to install the new sight.

I had to file a bit off the front base of the new sight so it went in about a third of the way by hand. I then cleaned out the old locktite,
re-Blued the edge I filed on the new sight. Added a bit of locktite on the slide. And pushed the new one in the cut.



Nice new white outlined Trijicon front sight....

[Dr Mordrid]

My P250sc will come with night sights

[VJ]

It is funny to me how you guys talk about carrying guns like it is a wristwatch. The closest I've been to a gun was when standing next to a police officer who carries one.
(not judging or anything, just the surprise of the different customs in different countries)

[UtwigMU]

While I had a personal AK-47 issued in the army (no ammo except while guarding and not even then in all cases, shot only on a range) and guns are not unusual to me, still buying guns like that seems weird. I've been to numerous places in the World so I know what may seem weird in one place may be totally normal in another. While getting a weapon permit for a pistol here is hard (hunting rifle is not such a problem), going to a range, renting pistol and shooting on targets is no problem.

Doc: what order of magnitude is the cost of such a gun: few 100, 1000?

Funny how one cannot buy these things here although Glocks are being made in next country and Sigs in country beyond that.

[Dr Mordrid]

My P250sc will cost about $420, but that's with the night sights. Without them it's $340. X-Change kits cost extra. The larger & upscale P239 now runs $650+, but when I bought mine it was about $450. There are autoloading pistols out there for under $200, but not as small in high power cartridges or as high quality as a SIG, S&W, Kimber etc.

BTW: American Rifleman, the NRA magazine, named the P250 line Tactical Gun of the Year in 2009. No small part was because it's such a chameleon, not only changing calibers but handle frame size, slide & barrel length without a need for tools. Just swap the lock module between kits & you're good to go.

In Michigan (dunno about other states) the lock module is the only part that needs a purchase permit because that's where the serial mumber is, so one permit covers all configurations. Permits are $10, mainly to cover the paperwork, and take a few minutes & a computer check with ATF.

Night Sights have 3 tiny transparent pellets embedded in the sights, 2 in the rear leaf and 1 in the front blade, that are lined with a phosphor and contain tritium gas. Tritium is a radioactive form of hydrogen that decays by giving off electrons, which light up the phosphor. Half life is 14 years, so they glow for quite a while.

[ALBPM]

It is funny to me how you guys talk about carrying guns like it is a wristwatch. The closest I've been to a gun was when standing next to a police officer who carries one.
(not judging or anything, just the surprise of the different customs in different countries)

Hey Doc,..... Does the Kimber make my butt look Phat??????.....LOL!!!!

[UtwigMU]

The AK-47 had night sights as well.

[Dr Mordrid]

Hey Doc,..... Does the Kimber make my butt look Phat??????.....LOL!!!!

Makes it look expensive

That silliness aside, Kimber makes sweet looking/shooting guns.

[ALBPM]

The AK-47 had night sights as well.

Very nice!!!!
I still want to add an AK to my collection.

There are still a lot of Romainian, Bulgarian and Hungarian military surplus AK kits available here - without the fully Auto receivers....of course.

I like the surplus kits because I can re-finish/re-build them.

[UtwigMU]

I was one of last generations to serve and then I had first Yugoslav (better) then Bulgarian (worse) AK. Now our army is professional and they have FN F 2000 S. They were considering Finnish NATO caliber AKs for a while.

[Dr Mordrid]

FN F 2000 S?

NICE weapon!!

I like the S variant for the tactical rail. Very nice addition your govt. ordered.

[ALBPM]

The FNs are great weapons one of my favorites.
I have 6 different FN FAL variants that I have re built from Argentine and Chilean surplus kits.

My last two are my best work: These are the 7.62 x 51 Nato caliber

This was the first Para version I built using the Argentine lower receiver and small parts. I managed to find two South African barrels which turned out to be my most accurate.







This is my nicest looking one using the last African barrel and I refinished an Australian handguard with Curly Maple. I also have a lettering tool to highlight the engraving.









I have since added an optics rail and a DNS muzzle break to this one.



Here's one more Built with an Austrian STG barrel and solid stock with a nice Desert cammo paint job. I also put a bipod on this one.