With the two Kel Tecs I owned, I had a difficult time reassembling them after cleaning. It was very exasperating, but a practical matter no one ever mentions. It's another reason I got rid of them. Maybe it's just me.
The only autos I've ever shot that havn't jammed on me at least once or twice have been glocks. I've been told I'm not holding them properly (but only by people who weren't there...). I carry revolver.
My neighbor has a love/hate relationship with Taurus. I can't trust their reliability in semi autos. There was something quirky about the operation of the Nano. I can't remember what it was that turned me away when I finally replaced my Kahr. My current EDC. Emma.
FWIW I've never had a failure to fire, failure to feed, or failure to eject on my Shield. Ever. Straight out of the box. One thing I don't use is cheap ammo though, like steel case or waxy ammo. I've put thousands of rounds through it. The other advantage you get with a Shield is that accessories for it are plentiful, magazines are cheap, and S&W stands behind their firearms with great support.
The Nano's had some serious issues with their ejectors. I think there was also a problem with the firing pin breaking while dry firing it, and some mag issues.
The Kahrs do have some great reviews. I was looking at them and ultimately went with the Shield on sale. S&W often does $50 rebates on the Shield as well. Here's the thing: most firearms are going to be ok, even the Taurus. The difference is the level of support you get from a company if you DO have a problem, and do you want to spend the time figuring out how to make your firearm run reliably....and are you experienced enough to do that yourself? Ask yourself how much money and time you will spend on making a cheap gun work.....and you could have bought a great gun for the same money when all is said and done.
Glocks are fine weapons, they just don't point naturally for me with their grip angles. They'd be fine for me at self defense distances and I've got nothing against them though. Revolvers are the ultimate in dependability, but lord help you if you need to reload. I certainly haven't trained with them enough to be able to do so, and speed loaders don't exactly slip into a pocket mag carrier like mags do.
Never played it, not a gamer at all, and never heard of Doom until now. But that's very interesting, especially given your generation.
I played a lot of games as a kid. You know those military strategy games? They used to come in boxes, and you'd play on a paper map. The rule book could run over 100 pages, although it usually didn't. During my college years I started playing Go, which is harder than chess. I still play it, sort of. So I was a gamer a generation before the word was coined.
Except that I had a very early version of Flight Simulator that included a WW1 aerial dogfight game that I played a lot, I never took to computer games. I absolutely loathed "Dungeons and Dragons", and that was about the last I paid any attention to the stuff. To each his own.
Spalted Brazillian Cherry. $33 from a guy in Costa Rica. That's one thing I like about my Kimber. For $50, I can buy new grips and it's like getting a new gun. I have 3 different sets and all of them have different qualities.
Its true. The gun came with Hogue rubber molded grips. I then bought some black/green g10 grips with a thumb cut. My latest are fancy wood grips with the starburst cut pattern to keep a good grip. Each set make the gun look completely different. It always has the TFX Pro sights and 1911 style operation.
Dan Wesson used to (maybe they still do) make a .357 magnum that came with a tool that allowed you to swap out barrels 2.5", 4", 6" and 8". Your grip thing reminds me of that barrel thing. LOL.
What about these cheap SCCY handguns that are also compact. Anyone familiar with them? Are they any good? They are made in USA, and I think pleasing to the eye.
I haven't heard anything bad about them, but I've never owned one. My wife has a Ruger Security 9. It's a little big for EDC, but it's a great bedside/truck gun. $299
I tried to get my wife to look at the SR9, but her mind was made up. I like the SR9 better, but it's usually closer to $400. OP was trying to keep it at $300.
Yip. Its honestly a bad time to shop for bargains, 6 months ago prices were much lower but demand is still pretty high as far as I know, no reason for sellers to discount anything. Im a ruger fan and back when the american and the security arrived the sr9 models were dirt cheap, $350ish. Now that they've cleared out that old inventory, they leaped back up.