Kahr for Ruger v. kid for dad

[aray]

I done bad. Or not?

Been saving up for a CM9 ever since I heard about them. Has been taking a while to put the money aside, but alas I have to wait anyway for it to appear on the Maryland Approved Handgun Roster (which still hasn’t happened yet, btw).

Recently however my 12 year old daughter started wanting to shoot with me. She loves my Uzi (go figure) but is afraid of the recoil of my CW9 and my Beretta 92FS. So she asked me for a 22.

I’ve been mulling that over in my mind for a while, but recently the scales got tipped when I have had to start trapping raccoons in our backyard. Some of them have lost all fear of humans and have been coming up on our second story deck. If we open the slider before checking, we run the risk of startling the raccoons and cornering them between the main deck and their obvious escape down the stairs. Not good.

Problem is, I only have 9mm firearms (which is overkill for a raccoon) and a 725 fps .177 air gun, which I have discovered is underpowered for the job. It does kill the raccoons, but not as quickly as I would like. They do have to be put down, to be sure, but hey the raccoon is just being a raccoon and I want to be as humane as possible.

So I broke down last night and plunked down the money I had been saving up for a CM9 to instead purchase a Ruger 22/45 with threaded barrel for my daughter … and with dual use by me as a varmint dispatcher.

Daughter is all excited - but now she gets to find out about things called "handgun waiting periods" vs. instant gratification. Looking forward to shooting with her, but still I'm gonna miss that CM9 that in my mind was already mine. Whimper, tear.

So I gave away my Kahr money for a Ruger. Am I banished now from the good fellowship of kahrtalk for this heresy? I still have my CW9 - does that count?

[Barth]

You did good and made your daughter proud.
Get a silencer for the 22/45 and let the games begin!

[Zippo Guy]

Your daughter is one lucky girl! Good things come to those that wait.

[Bill K]

You did the good and right thing. None the less, yes you would have been banned from KamrTalk were it not for the CW9. :)

[Bawanna]

It's always for the children. Your aces in my book but when / if the CM gets the blessings of your leaders your hereby authorized to act immediately.
The 22 don't count, since it comes out of the "its for the children" fund which is unlimited.

[getsome]

How about trading the CW9 for a CM9?...Just a thought...I traded a .38 S&W snub this past weekend for a S&W M&P .40 and I got $360.00 for the snub which I never shot much anyway...I really like the M&P and wanted a high cap .40 to go with my PM40 pocket pistol...I have also been wanting one of those Ruger 22/45's for a while now...Nice gun and great for kids to learn to shoot with and now you get to spend some quality father/daughter time at the range...While at the gun shop to pick up the M&P I looked at a Beretta CX4 storm .45 cal rifle and now I got the hots for one of those.... Every time I turn aroung I see another gun I want...Does the madness ever end?????????

[MW surveyor]

At least the "for the children" was for yours!

[Rainman48314]

Good investment in a young person is never a bad move.

[aray]

How about trading the CW9 for a CM9?

I like my CW9 for when I leave Maryland and can CCW. The CM9 was to be either my BUG, or a CCW gun for my wife's purse - TBD.

[TheTman]

I think you did good aray. Hard to go wrong with a good .22, and I think the daddy-daughter time you spend getting to know it will be priceless. Meanwhile, the CM9 may come down in price as you rebuild your pistol fund and they become more plentiful.

[jlottmc]

Everyone needs a good 22, both rifle and pistol in their battery. No worries, we wouldn't kick you or 99.99999999999% of people off here anyway. Since I've been here I remember a whopping two, and they got what they deserved for being trolls. Follow that pistol up with a Ruger 10/22, and wonder what you did before you got them. That CM9 will come one of these days. The time you spend with your daughter, and the gifts that she gets from that (it's not the guns but the intangible gifts that she will realize later) are priceless. You're on the right track.

[MikeyKahr]

Way to go aray, great job! Have fun and treasure those father/daughter moments! And yes, even the 22/45 vs. raccoon moments! :33: When you do get your hands on that 22/45 after that lovely waiting period, let us (i.e. me) know how she treats you :phone: That exact 22/45 is on my short list (currently #3 but might be first purchased) and I'd like to hear your thoughts on it.

[Tom from Michigan]

Sir, you made a very good choice. That's the one I would buy. You're going to get a lot of use out of that gun. Congrats.

[wm36]

Anything to keep that connection going between father and daughter. Keep it up dad! I kind of settled for less when my girl hit her teens. It has been a long road back, but now we have regular "dates" and things are great (she's 24). You won't be sorry at all. Be glad she's interested in a "dad" thing!

[aray]

That exact 22/45 is on my short list (currently #3 but might be first purchased) and I'd like to hear your thoughts on it.

MikeyKahr,

I got a chance to take our new Ruger 22/45 out to the range the other day with my kid. Here are my observations:

PROS:

Very nice gun. Feels good in my hands and that of my kid. Looks good and shoots good. We put about 175 rounds downrange the first time out with flawless operation. Everything about this gun looks and feels solid. When I field stripped and cleaned the gun all the internal parts also looked well made and reliable. Perfect so far.

CONS:

Coming from a Beretta 92FS and Uzi background I thought the Kahrs were complicated to field strip and put back together, what with the line up the lines on the slide, push out the stop, pull the trigger, etc. How wrong I was. The Ruger 22/45 is a nightmare: you have to put the magazine in, do stuff, pull the magazine back out, do more stuff, when putting it back together tip the gun in this direction, do stuff, tip it in some other direction, do more stuff, put the magazine back in, tip it yet again and do more stuff, now tip it in another direction, blah blah blah. Rube Goldberg has nothing on these guys.

If you get one of the guns, I did find the following video very helpful: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fIYIWK0boo He makes it look very simple if not trivial (compared to the manual) and he was half right. It was spot on when it comes to disassembly. But I did have to modify his techniques when it came to reassembly; I could not do the final step as he showed on the video. I had to go closer to the manual’s much more complex procedures. The problem was the hammer needed to rotate (fall) in a certain way towards the end (hence all the nonsense about rotating the gun back & forth). The only way I could get the mainspring housing latch to close was to manually manipulate the position of the hammer inside the bolt. I suspect when I get more rounds through the gun that it will loosen up a bit, making this step easier in the future, I hope.

The other Con comment I’d make is that the gun sights did not seem to be zeroed in. My daughter shot all but the first and last 10 rounds out of the 175 fired. I was mostly concentrating on her (of course she was landing all over the target). My groupings were tight but all consistently high and to the left. Before I condemn the gun however I want to get it back out to the range when she’s not there so that I can do the sort of careful measured analysis without distraction that I need to diagnose the situation properly.

OTHER

The magazine spring was surprisingly strong if you wanted to fully load it with all 10 rounds. I had to play with my finger positions a bit before I could keep it down all the way easily without killing my fingers or fingernails. Now I'm good to go.

I'm really glad I got the specific model of 22/45 with threaded barrel. If I ever want to get a suppressor for the gun it's all ready to rock & roll. That won't be for a while (cost) but I'd like to pursue that some day/year.

And yes, we did have a great time. I’ve glossed over that of course so that I could answer your questions about my impressions of the gun, but as you might expect the daddy/daughter time shooting was the big goal and true value of the trip. She wants me to take her back out ASAP – but has me on notice to leave the CW9 home this time and instead bring the Uzi along to accompany my/her Ruger 22/45!

[aray]

FYI for sake of completeness, compare the video above with Ruger's official videos on the Mark III. For disassembly:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGEtudNJua4&NR=1
Not so bad. But now for reassembly:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeY9s2TYAOk&NR=1
Note how many times you have to insert the mag, pop it back out, rotate the pistol this way, now rotate it back that way, now ...

[MikeyKahr]

Thanks for the report aray! Glad to hear you finally took the 22/45 out for a spin and even more glad that you had a chance to take your girl out for a great time! That's great that she enjoyed it. If it were me though I'd take the 22/45, the Uzi AND the cw9!

Sent using Tapatalk

[Ressom]

I have a Mark II, so I don't have to do all those magazine removals and insertions, but it still can be a pain getting that thing back together.

You can get a thumb magazine loader to help with loading:
http://www.midwayusa.com/viewProduct/?productNumber=163202

[yqtszhj]

Good job on getting that Ruger for her (and you.) I have the hunter version and my daughter loves it.

Also I traded my CW9 for the CM9 and although I miss the CW9 I can say the CM9 gets a lot of carry time. It's the main carry piece now. My daughter will shoot it some too.

Side note on the daughter, mine is my most faithful shooting partner. I was carrying her to school the other day and was telling her that if she makes all A's I would ........ and she said "Get me a new gun?" I told her I was going to say that I would let her drive, pay the insurance, and pay for the gas. I figured it was an investment toward a scholarship. She then said "and the gun too?" I can see a Ruger 10/22 in our future. She likes the black synthetic stock. She said black goes with anything, unless there is purple.

[yqtszhj]

Recently however my 12 year old daughter started wanting to shoot with me. She loves my Uzi (go figure) but is afraid of the recoil of my CW9 and my Beretta 92FS. So she asked me for a 22.



What kind of Uzi do you have and how does it run? I've seen the vector arms and century, and then there is the IMI but WHEW, the $$$$$!

I've been looking at a 9mm carbine. I like the Sub2000 because it's compact (yeah I know it's a KT but the reviews are good on this one) , The Hi-point (price is right but it's bigger than I want), don't care much for the Beretta CX4 although it would take my 92FS mags I think,.. and then there is the UZI. Hmmm I'd spend the money on a vector if I knew it would work well. Mixed reports on century, mostly on the negative side.

[Bawanna]

The Rugers are a puzzle to take apart and assemble but your are indeed correct that after awhile they do loosen up a bit and while it's still a puzzle things go together much better.

When I bought my Mark II the shop owner, a good friend did a dissasemble for me at my request so I could see it first hand, but he wouldn't do my brand new never shot one. He grabbed a used on, his own I think that had been shot a bunch. He told me mine would be the same only a 100 times harder the first few times. He was right.

Great father daughter time aray.

yqtszhj- get the daughter the new gun, you gotta take care of faithful shooting partners. Consider it Bawanna approved.

[aray]

What kind of Uzi do you have and how does it run? I've seen the vector arms and century, and then there is the IMI but WHEW, the $$$$$!

I have the IMI Uzi Model A semiautomatic. You can see pictures of all of my guns including the Uzi here:
http://kahrtalk.com/showthread.php?t=2243&highlight=uzi
plus my Civil War Gettysburg rifle here:
http://kahrtalk.com/showthread.php?t=2244&highlight=springfield

I got mine years ago, and pretty much in response to the fact that Maryland was about to ban them, with a grandfather clause. In hindsight I'm really glad for me that they did that, because at the time I didn't pay all that much for it, it's been so much fun, and now the value is way up. (Not that I'd ever sell it, just sayin').

It runs great! Extremely smooth and deadly accurate. It is by far the most accurate gun I own. Very little felt recoil and fast to zero back in on target. And there's nothing like putting in an extended high capacity magazine and pop, pop, pop, pop, ... forever. Not trying to show off, I enjoy it all by myself, but at the same time it really grabs the attention of everyone on the range. Easy to break down & clean, solid, reliable - what's not to love?

My 12 year old daughter loves the thing; she calls it "her" Uzi. Yeah, she might get the 22/45, but we'll have to flip for the Uzi each time we hit the range! :D

[yqtszhj]

Nice IMI. I don't know what got me thinking about hose lately. I think I saw one on television recently and kinda have the itch.

Nice Beretta too. Did you get that problem fixed? I have the INOX and the first 100 were a little wierd on a round or 2 but after that they all ran OK. I have heard that 200-300 rounds are good for breakin (on the Italian anyway they're suppose to be tight.)

If those grips are a problem you can just mail them to me :D. They had the walnut grips on sale recently so I pimped my grips and replaced the stock black plastic ones. I still like that cherry on the black gun though.

[aray]

Sorry for the delay in responding to your question (I missed your reply) but thanks for asking. And yes, I did get the problem fixed with the Beretta. I adapted those portions that made sense from jocko's proper prep for a new Kahr to the Beretta (e.g. racked the slide a gazillion times), cleaned and lubed it well, and took it back out to the range. Perfect ever since, and I've now put hundreds of rounds through it.

[recoilguy]

The 22 don't count, since it comes out of the "its for the children" fund which is unlimited.

Truer words.........

RCG

[MikeyKahr]

I'm off to the gun show this weekend. First gun show for me. I wish I could use the "it's for the children" line - unfortunately, no little rugrats yet so I don't think Mrs. MikeyKahr will fall for that trick. She's wicked smart. Hoping for some good deals but we'll see, I'm going in with super low expectations. Who knows, if aray's 22/45 pops up on the radar for a good price, I might just have to jump on it. Although they probably frown on that sort of thing at gun shows. It'll be a fun experience anyway and I'll be able to get a lay of the land and see what's what. I've only experienced brick and mortar fun shops and of course the internet - this will surely be different!

[Bawanna]

The important thing to remember is it don't have to be your kids. You could use the new acquisition to teach the neighbor kids or any kids as a public service for safety sake.

Do your homework before a gunshow. They can be overwelming and the I want virus can sometimes easily overrule common sense. If your not positive in your mind what your looking at and think its a steal, your probably wrong. The guys behind the tables had alot more time to research than you. There are deals but you got hunt hard for them.

[MikeyKahr]

Thanks for the advice, uncle B. I've been doing homework now for about two years! :eek: And yes, I'm still in search mode....waiting patiently for buy mode.

[Bawanna]

You tell your wife I said it was ok to buy. Tell her I'll see about letting her set at the big people table at the next reunion. I'm not allowed there but I think I can get her a seat.

Its for the children.