Hey all! My name is Brad, I live in southern Illinois as of right now, I'm 21 and am attending SIU in Carbondale (oddly enough :biggrin: ) I recently made my first gun purchase, an S&W 686 .357 4" barrel. I've been wanting a handgun for a long time and a little while before my 21st b-day, I sent in my firearms owners id card into the state.
I choose a wheel gun as my first because I was convinced by a friend that it would be a good choice. That, and on my own accord, I love revolvers. My second choice was going to be a Glock and while there's nothing wrong with one, I figured I'd get some practice with something easy to operate, clean, etc... Before I purchased the 686 I got incentive and went to my local shooting range, rented a Ruger GP-100 .357 and put about 600 rounds though it, half .38 spl and half .38+p. I have never fired magnum ammo as of yet. I found I really liked the feel of the wheel gun and grew very comfortable with it, I've also shot Glocks and my friend's Beretta 92. So, I'm very satisfied with my purchase. I'm going to devirginize my 686 hopefully on Sunday, depending on how much money I have, and am going to do the same ammo choice, few boxes of .38 and a few of +p, gradually moving up to the very expensive .357 magnum load :wink:
And yes, Illinois doesn't have a CCW, and I doubt we ever will, but I'm in full support of one (very recently it got voted in the house but everyone seemed to have lost track of it after that). Damn you mayor Daily!
I choose a wheel gun as my first because I was convinced by a friend that it would be a good choice. That, and on my own accord, I love revolvers. My second choice was going to be a Glock and while there's nothing wrong with one, I figured I'd get some practice with something easy to operate, clean, etc... Before I purchased the 686 I got incentive and went to my local shooting range, rented a Ruger GP-100 .357 and put about 600 rounds though it, half .38 spl and half .38+p. I have never fired magnum ammo as of yet. I found I really liked the feel of the wheel gun and grew very comfortable with it, I've also shot Glocks and my friend's Beretta 92. So, I'm very satisfied with my purchase. I'm going to devirginize my 686 hopefully on Sunday, depending on how much money I have, and am going to do the same ammo choice, few boxes of .38 and a few of +p, gradually moving up to the very expensive .357 magnum load :wink:
And yes, Illinois doesn't have a CCW, and I doubt we ever will, but I'm in full support of one (very recently it got voted in the house but everyone seemed to have lost track of it after that). Damn you mayor Daily!