My dad is a gun collector and I've been shooting all my life. I'm pretty sure I've fired all of them at one point or other. My favorite was his Beretta, I have no idea what model. I told myself if I ever bought a gun for myself it would be that same one.

Shy

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Just remember, football is 80% mental and 40% physical.
Little Giants (1994) – Steve Emtman

I really like the beretta 92fs a lot . It feels great in my hand and is a beautiful gun. It was between that and my glock 17.

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My father has a Glock .40 and a Beretta 9mm, both feel comfortable in the hand (though I've never fired either of them). I personally have a Taurus .357 Magnum revolver, short barrel.

I'll stack my P220R up against the 1911 any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

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"Uh, no."
John Schneider

Colt 1911 all day

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I have an H&K P30 .40 and I like it. Very reliable and comfortable.

Actually, my .357 isn't a Taurus, it's an EAA Windicator .357 with a 2" barrel.

Holy cow. Apparently there is an automatic 1911-ish frame .357 magnum. http://www.coonaninc.com/index.php/cPath,5

Has anybody ever fired one of these? Also, do any of our resident gun experts know anything about the Coonan brand? .357 magnum power in a 1911-ish frame, this thing looks amazing.

That thing would make John Browning roll in his grave. There has been but only one other automatic pistol chambered in .357, that I can think of, and that would be the Desert Eagle Mark XIX. It's a noble concept, for sure, but impractical for any purpose other than a pleasing afternoon at the range. The feed geometry of that gun has been customized sufficiently to load the cartridge, but my gut tells me the pistol would still be quite dependent on what ammo is fed through it. To be fair, most guns are at least a little persnickety about what ammo they like, but 1911s are notorious for disliking anything other than full metal jacket (a.k.a. "ball" or "hardball"), and this is a phenomenon true of 1911s in .45 ACP, .40 S&W, and 9mm Para.

The .357 cartridge is rimmed, whereas nearly all other autoloader cartridges (in both rifles and pistols) are rimless. The rims on the cartridges affect how they stack in the magazine, which is why this handgun has crappy capacity at only 7 rounds. That is one more round than most small frame revolvers, and two more rounds than most ultra compact revolvers, in a Government sized (5 inch) Colt handgun profile. Granted, it is firing .357 magnum, which is attractive from a self-defense standpoint, but you can get the same power in a smaller handgun, with better capacity (10-15 rounds sound good?), in something chambered for .357 Sig.

The Coonan piece looks the shit, though, and I'd love to have one for a fun day at the range. As a carry piece they are impractical, though I could actually see it being useful for deer hunting, though there are better pistols for it, some of them even on an M1911 frame. If you're going to go full tilt on an M1911 chambered in something oddball, consider a .460 Rowland. It's like .44 mag power in a 1911 frame.

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Feel free to contact me if you need legal assistance. I have a great lawyer that helped me with an ex who violated my privacy and kept harassing me on MySpace and Facebook. He's very good. And there is legal precedent. - linuxpro

He is hold back the legion of boom - skater18000

Or, if you would rather impress people with the sheer size (and utter oddity) of your M1911, see if you can get your hands on an AMT Automag III. It's chambered in .30 Carbine, the same cartridge fired by the M1 Carbine, and it packs a serious punch. Looks really menacing with its absurdly long 7" barrel. Totally off the scale for impracticality, but a highly collectible piece with useability for hunting purposes and starting conversations with other gun savvy people. I've been trying to locate one of these off and on for a few years now but can't get one at a price I'm happy with.

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Feel free to contact me if you need legal assistance. I have a great lawyer that helped me with an ex who violated my privacy and kept harassing me on MySpace and Facebook. He's very good. And there is legal precedent. - linuxpro

He is hold back the legion of boom - skater18000

Smokin, you just necessitated a change of shorts on my part. A pistol that fires .30 carbine ammo. Holy Christ. That would be amazing to play with at the range, just for the hell of it. I see there are some available on auction sites for around a grand.

Yeah, it isn't worth a dime over 500, though. The steel is cheap and rusts easily. AMT was known for manufacturing a lot of cheap guns and so-called "Saturday Night Specials", nearly all of them have reliability, cosmetic, or finish issues, but man they sure do look cool. If you can find one without any rust on it, snatch it up. It's a relative rarity to find one that was regularly oiled.

Believe it or not, they actually made an Automag V, as well, which was chambered in .50 Action Express (Desert Eagle cartridge), but I like the concept of the III better, since the V has but a 5 round capacity.

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Feel free to contact me if you need legal assistance. I have a great lawyer that helped me with an ex who violated my privacy and kept harassing me on MySpace and Facebook. He's very good. And there is legal precedent. - linuxpro

He is hold back the legion of boom - skater18000

Yeah, I looked them up on Wikipedia. It seems like there would be a market for them to produce much better pieces that take specialized ammo, which they could charge a premium for; no?

Well, here's the thing. AMT as a company went bankrupt defending itself from patent infringement suits coming from Ruger. They basically ripped off the venerable Ruger Model 10/22 action, put it into an all stainless steel frame with wire folding stock, and sold it with a 25 round banana magazine. Their brand name has been sold numerous times, but none of the same people are running the show. Truth be told, they really weren't the most gifted gunsmiths in the world, they just had computerized machining equipment (for the 80s, it was impressive), and knew CAD well enough to modify existing drawings, such as the M1911. It was a crew of redneck savants building those guns down in Cali.

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Feel free to contact me if you need legal assistance. I have a great lawyer that helped me with an ex who violated my privacy and kept harassing me on MySpace and Facebook. He's very good. And there is legal precedent. - linuxpro

He is hold back the legion of boom - skater18000

Interesting history. That III sure looks like the result of a redneck orgasm and AutoCAD, haha.

Minor thread hijack here, so apologies to the OP, but as the gun fans are already in this thread seemed a logical place to ask.

I know foreign nationals can't own guns in the US but can they shoot them at a range when on vacation?

Interesting question, I don't see why you couldn't walk into a range and rent one?

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I'm fairly sure that's legal, as I've known some foreigners to come to the U.S. for hunting trips.

According to Wiki, it's legal:

http://wikitravel.org/en/Recreational_shooting

Oh, I was mistsken. It was his Browning that I liked.

Shy

_________________
Just remember, football is 80% mental and 40% physical.
Little Giants (1994) – Steve Emtman

Yes they can, so long as they get a hunting license, which is usually around $50USD. With a hunting license, you can borrow one from a friend, or rent one at a range. Go to Las Vegas and you can even shoot a machine gun, under the watchful supervision of a rangemaster.

_________________
Feel free to contact me if you need legal assistance. I have a great lawyer that helped me with an ex who violated my privacy and kept harassing me on MySpace and Facebook. He's very good. And there is legal precedent. - linuxpro

He is hold back the legion of boom - skater18000