My new addition from Streichers...(Firearm owners, post up your pics inside)

No, you're just "soft spoken". Need vocal coaching! FWIW, i can't hear you when you're typing at me either!

 

^Looks like a great fit for your gangly arms!! hahaha

 

I've been busy on some other boards in regards to that. So far it sounds like an AWB and mag limits are off the table and they're focusing on background checks.

I've also held off on it because it invites a political discussion aspect to this thread that doesn't belong here. We've had political stuff come up in the past on this site and it's never ended well. I would rather keep this one just to guns that we own and how much we enjoy getting to use them.

 

Not that the navy is that small of a world, but where were you stationed in San Diego? I was there from 98 till 2003. CIWS school over on dryside, then onboard the USS Elliot till 2001, then SIMA 57echo and a short run in the sheetmetal fabrication shop. Enlistment ended in Sept 2003. Then moved here end of 04.

 

I had the same car I had here, it was a Silver 04 WRX. I didn't have it very long on base though. I didn't really know anyone on the Stethem, but then again, I don't think you were in our battlegroup either. I know most of my San Diego time was spent parked around pier 7, and while at SIMA, I frequented the smoking area at that little convenience shop behind the Taco Bell by the main gate.

 

Some good news, at least for this year...

http://www.kare11.com/news/article/1013591/396/Assault-weapons-ban-magazine-limit-out-of-picture

I consider less than 1k rounds on hand to be a low ammo situation, especially in this climate.

 

I was also part of the early days of AWJunkies. If you went to any meets in the San Diego area where other Subarus were present, I was probably there.

 

Good, can we now cut this crap of ARs being worth their weight in gold and bring them back down to the "about 800 bucks" price range they were in before all this nonsense started?

 

I doubt it, not with the current nationwide push going on.

If the AWB that Feinstein is pushing gets tossed out then I think you may see pricing start to drop to more sane levels. The pricing does seem to be dropping somewhat, but not nearly enough for me to want to get another one at this point. At the peak of things I probably could have sold my LMT as-is for 5k or so.

Sad.

 

Yeah, Gunbroker has lots of ARs available for around 1500-2000. DPMS and RRA seem to set their MSRPs around 800 for base level stuff, the more intricate setups obviously cost more. It's mindblowing what people are charging. I'd hate to go to a gunshow at this point.

 

I've seen some DPMS stuff as low as 600 or so before the panic.

That being said, if you're getting an AR for serious use (training, home defense, etc) then I would recommend not going cheap. Firearms are truly something where you get what you pay for. Colt, Noveske, LMT, BCM and Daniel Defense are still my go to recommended brands for a good AR.

 

While I agree with you 100%. I don't consider RRA to be junk or low quality. Others may not agree. But I've read alot of reviews and seen a few of them, and I find them to be a well priced firearm.

 

I've seen some issues with their lowers and not fitting well with a non-RRA upper. I tend to lean towards the mil-spec side of things with ARs and they're more towards the middle of the chart. The only other thing with RRA is that for what you pay for one of them, you can get into most of the other brands that I mentioned and have the same or even a better rifle. Noveskes tend to be $Texas, but their barrels really are something worth paying for. I'm looking at using one of their 10in or 12.5 in barrels for an SBR build I'm working on. I may go through BCM for my next complete rifle based on their latest stand with Milwaukee.

RRA makes a decent rifle, I just think that there are better options in the price range. My priorities in a firearm are likely a bit different than a lot of people, so my opinion is worth taking with a shovel load of salt. I'm just glad that we've got the options out there that we do to pick different manufacturers. I don't think people realize that if some of these bills start passing that a lot of people are going to end up losing jobs in the firearms sector because these companies wouldn't make it without the civilian market.

 

They were banned long before that happened as part of the CAFE standards I believe. It was around F&F2 that they started doing the "get caught street racing and we will simply crush your car" thing. VF34 was about the biggest turbo you could get away with without failing the visual test at the smog stations.

 

My hope is that once the AWB gets voted down (fingers crossed) that pricing drops back to normal and we see a bunch of people who panic bought flooding the market like what happened in 08.

 

LOL, what will happen is alot like what happens in any get-rich-quick-off-of-rare-discontinued-or-banned-items-and-then-find-out-none-of-that-happened-oops situations. 99% of these morons will still try to mark them up WAY beyond what the manufacturer is setting as the MSRP for a NEW item. Then they'll justify it the same way they did in 2008. "RARE AR-15!!! Price is FIRM because Obama blah blah socialism blah blah take our guns bla blah liberals durr hurr durr! GET THEM BEFORE THEY ARE BANNED FOREVER!!!"

 

Most of what I saw from the 2008 debacle was guys selling them at a loss because they had to get money back into their credit cards. Ammo took a year or so to stabilize as far as availability, but the guns came back down a bit quicker.

That being said, I've already started to see some pricing leveling off or starting to come back down. If I find another Colt 6920 come up at Wal-Mart for under 1200 I'm going to pick that thing up in a heartbeat.

 

I'll wait till they are back to the prices they were about a year ago before I consider an AR. Not that I need one really, I think that I would rather get a carry pistol anyway. But a year ago, the idea of purchasing an AR seemed reasonable. Now it just seems stupid and reckless.

 

There are still a number of retailers out there who aren't jacking up their prices. If you do want an AR, a good route might be to find a lower and just build bit by bit. Then you've also got the option of picking everything that goes into it and then you'll also get the satisfaction of building it yourself.

What are you thinking for a carry pistol?

 

I'm still hooked on your Sig, but I think I'd go with something more standard for ammo. .40 would probably be the likely.
Though, part of me really really REALLY wants that Desert Eagle .44mag that I shot at the range. I have to say, after getting over the initial "holy crap this thing is gigantic in my hands" portion of the range time with it, it still is the most accurate and easy to shoot gun I've ever used. It was deadly consistant, recoil was negligible, and it's a 44mag FFS. Which is pretty much an insta-smile round to fire.

So, for practical carrying, I'd say a Sig P226.
For the "I wish I had gotten this instead" firearm, the DE44. Yeah, it wont fit on your belt all that nicely, and yeah it's huge, and yeah you wont be "concealing" it anywhere really...but still...****-eating-grin-o-matic.

 

The Sig I had was a 229, the smaller version.

If I can swing it, I'm getting it back from the PD Sgt I traded it to a while ago. I miss that gun. The .40/.357SIG guns can interchange barrels. You can also drop a 9mm barrel and mags in and run those. You can't do that conversion starting with a 9mm, however.

I can check, I might know a guy with a .44Mag DE who'd be willing to sell.

You could also look at a Baby Eagle

 

Right, that would be the other reason for the .40 decision. I could go to a 357SIG if I absolutely wanted to, and 9mm as well. The only thing I didn't like about your P229 was that my hands are a little wider and meatier. And I like my palms to feel grip to the bottom. If it was a concealment issue, I'd consider the "compact" 229 size, I just like the slightly larger form-factor for my hands. Which is another reason I liked the Desert Eagle. I felt more in control of it because I could wrap my hands around it without feeling "cluttered."