Shooting and Landlording!

The 4 day weekend that my wife and I were enjoying has finally come to an end. We had a good time. We stayed at the Hilton and did a lot of walking and shopping; we ate at some good restaurants; and generally just relaxed.

After all that strenuous relaxing (I'm not good at sitting still), today was my day to get a couple of things done. The first item on the agenda was to go to The Good Feet Store to determine if I could cure my heel pain without going to the doctor. My heel has been sore for almost a year and I suspect that my arches are taking a lot of abuse. I found the staff at the store to be well informed and after taking impressions of my feet, they brought out the appropriate size arch supports. They were a whopping $350, but will be well worth it if my foot feels better for mountain biking and other summer fun.

Once my feet were fixed, it was off to the gun store to look for a handgun that would offer a little more stopping power in a small package. My preference was a .40 caliber pistol that could be easily carried in a concealed manner. It needed to be as lightweight as possible and as small as possible. The most important criteria is that it needed to be RELIABLE! Many low priced handguns are notoriously unreliable and the last thing I need is a gun that jams in an emergency. I have had expensive experience with Baretta guns including trapguns (shotguns and handguns) and therefore I knew that I would prefer a Baretta if it met the other criteria.

After looking at all the handguns, I decided on a used Baretta 9000S for only $349. It met my criteria of being small; lightweight; .40 caliber; and since it's a Baretta, I have confidence that it will be reliable.

After buying the gun, I wanted to shoot it! After all, I'm certainly not going to carry a gun for self defense that I haven't shot. So, my wife and I went to the range for a little shooting. As I expected, the gun performed flawlessly. All the shots went into the 12" targets at 25 feet and 50 feet, although I didn't get as tight a grouping as I get with my Baretta .32 caliber pistol. That may be because it's the first time I've fired it. At any rate, even with my first 50 rounds, I was certainly accurate enough for self-defense purposes.

When I got home, I downloaded the manual for the gun from the web and stripped the gun for cleaning. Even though the gun was used, everything on the gun was very tight, indicating that it hasn't been used much (if any). I'm going to start carrying it tomorrow and will use my .32 caliber Baretta for my home defense gun.

I'm back to work tomorrow, so I'm sure I'll have something to say about rentals!