Ok the rough translation of that is "What's up baby?" in Iraqi Arabic. So yes, that's where I'm at right now (mortars, rockets, IEDs, EFPs, SAF, all that fun stuff is still going on) but I can't wait to get home next year!!!!!!!! I'm a newlywed to the most amazing girl God ever created & she is just perfect for me. My wife was an infantry grunt up in Canada & then became an officer. She gave it all up & is immigrating to the US, & as of right now I'm waiting on the paperwork to get here to me. I've got 2 brothers; 1s a Marine who's deployed 3 times here & the other's AF who outranks both of us & has never deployed. My dad was in the Navy & then Merchant Marines & is a machinist. My mom is a home health aid who somehow copes with our deployments quite well & I get my positive attitude from her & my brains from my dad.
I don't own any guns but I've shot a 1911 s&w when it came out a few years ago & loved it & also a berretta 9mm Army issue, which was......well it shot straight & I hit the soda can on my very first shot but not a fun gun compared to the 1911. Besides those, I regularly shoot my M-4, 240B & M-2 at test fire pits but that's about it. No "war stories" here about how many kills I've got, not even gonna lie. I think people who do that are the definition of punks!
I can't even begin to tell you about all these guys who've gotten this or that award for doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING AT ALL BESIDES RIDING AROUND FOR AN HOUR OR 2 A DAY. Watch out for those guys, they're the ones who'll say how they got hit & took fire & all that yet when you say "who got hurt?" they respond "nobody..............luckily" so then you ask "so what was the damage to the vehicle?" to which they reply "well, there was no damage to the vehicle itself" so you then ask "uh then exactly wtf are you talking about lol????????" & they get all defensive & huffy. Come to find out, something blew up NEAR them, like they saw something blow up. Even better is the time their Boomerang incoming small arms fire detection system TOLD them that shots were fired. "War heroes" are everywhere. Take what you hear with a grain of salt if the story sounds.......you know, TOO generic or TOO ridiculous. Hell, there was some 15 year old kid talking $hit on youtube the other day to me about how soldiers & Marines are terrorists. I did 5, maybe 10 minutes of reading & saw that he told another guy, a medic no less, that he's a Marine & had just got home from his 2nd deployment. Yeah, I called him out on it! I'm just letting you know that so y'all can be informed & in the know. If the instances of this were minute, you honestly think I'd be going into so much detail on here about it? I'm a grunt who makes a living walking down the streets of the suburbs of Baghdad & surrounding towns providing security with a round in the chamber & my thumb ready to switch from safe to semi. I'm not screwing around. Any questions? If so, please ask. I'd rather you ask & then have an honest answer from me then assume something incorrectly based on either BS or rumor or "well back then it was like this" 'cuz now, IT'S DIFFERENT!
Back to the topic at hand....................................... I'd love to own a couple semi-autos & a shotgun...working on figuring out which ones may be what I'm looking for but this forum has shown me that 1 of the 1st steps is see how it feels so I can't really do that. What I CAN do is tell you from the price tags, reviews & pictures, I'm leaning heavily towards a Witness elite match & an XDM. What I'm not sure of is what cal to get but that's a whole 'nother issue.
Well it's almost 2230 here (8 hours ahead of my fellow Bostonians & NCers...& my wife in Montreal) so I'm hitting the latrines & then the rack. So far, love the forum! I enlisted, I mean registered on about 3 other forums 2 weeks ago before I found this 1 & haven't visited any of 'em since. Gotta go before the hot water's all gone! MOVE MOVE MOVE
DR
WELCOME to GUN and GAME feller...Oh boy you say you want some semi-auto's and a shotgun LOL
The shotgun will be the easiest if it's a pump action...A Remington 870 or a Benelli or a Mossberg 500.
If your looking for a semi-auto shotgun I'm bowing out LOL I own a Remington model 1100 and a Mossberg 930 that are great semi-auto's BUT there are many others.
I'll go ahead and recommend a semi-auto shotgun that I'd love to have and that be a Browning Maxus.
There new and nice plus there lite weight yet easy on the shoulder I've read.
It is a High Tech semi-auto yet it still looks like a hunting shotgun.
It also happens to be what I'm looking for in a semi-auto to use till death for all my non rifle hunting needs.
Go to Brownings website and take a look.
Did you mean semi-auto pistols or rifles or both ? You'll prolly want an AR-15 so add one to your list.
I don't have a clue on what semi-auto rifle to recommend, if your interested in a hunting rifle though I have and used a Remington 742 semi-auto for years.
I've since changed to a boltaction rifle.
So others here may be better able to help you and thanks for the PM you sent me ...A.H
__________________ IN GOD WE TRUST NRA MEMBER
Last edited by ArkansasHunter; 11-17-2009 at 02:56 PM.
Yup, thought it was pretty clear from the entire paragraph that I want both a shotgun & a couple pistols that are semi-auto. As of right now, I don't have an interest in owning a rifle. Carrying this M-4 all day, every day, just about everywhere I go has......how do I put this........made me interested in everything else BUT rifles lol!
I haven't started my shotgun search yet & have never even fired 1 so your information will go a looooooooooong way in getting me started & I sincerely thank you brother! I'll start my search with the 1s you wrote about & seriously, thanks for giving me some direction. Holy crap!!!! You've got over 17,000 posts?!!?!?!?!?!?!? I'm in awe! I don't think I've written 17,000 letters lol!
1. If you shot a S&W 1911 you're a little spoiled already! So you may wanna stick with that. Kimber makes a dandy 1911, Wilson has a dandy, Springfield too. et al.
2. Shotguns can be cheap or high. The Rem 870 is probably to shotguns what the 1911 is to pistols, kinda. (there's a lot of Mossberg fans here too, and they do make a good gun)
I've been carrying a personal Wilson Border Patrol 870 on duty for several years and it's a dandy. Accurate and smooooth.
Personally I'd rather have two fairly high dollar quality firearms than a dozen budget guns.
Stay safe amigo and hurry home.
GG
__________________
"The only thing more dangerous than ignorance is arrogance" Einstein
DogRomeo, welcome to G&G... have fun as i can tell you already are... lol! and ya for got the button for "none of the above, i want a real gun so im buying a 1911"... lmao!!!!
__________________ 12-21-2012: Party like theres no tomorrow!!!
the first thing I bought when I came home from Iraq was a Schecter C-1 Elite in Black with Mother of Pearl inlays in the fretboard. It has sweet action and is a total tone-monster.
Then I bought the Kimber TLE II. Keep yer head down.
__________________ "Yeah I'm playing with a full deck, all Jokers of course"
1. If you shot a S&W 1911 you're a little spoiled already! So you may wanna stick with that. Kimber makes a dandy 1911, Wilson has a dandy, Springfield too. et al.
2. Shotguns can be cheap or high. The Rem 870 is probably to shotguns what the 1911 is to pistols, kinda. (there's a lot of Mossberg fans here too, and they do make a good gun)
I've been carrying a personal Wilson Border Patrol 870 on duty for several years and it's a dandy. Accurate and smooooth.
Personally I'd rather have two fairly high dollar quality firearms than a dozen budget guns.
Stay safe amigo and hurry home.
GG
Good advise but I must make a tweak...
I'm an E-4 so I'm not really in the market for 1 high $ quality gun, let alone 2, being that I would like 2 so that my wife & I, who are both soldiers, can both shoot the bad guys/targets at the range. The other thing is, I chose the 2 guns listed in the above pole due to their reviews from gun pubs as well as gun people like yall on this lil forum here.
Without ever handling many semi-auto pistols, I've tried to put a profile for 2 ideal candidates which when all is said & done would be for CCW & HD so they have to be versatile; Must have 2 different calibers, 1 high (example .45 or .44), 1 medium (9mm or .40). Must be high cap (10 for a .45 & 16 for a .40 for instance). Must be quality yet stay with the medium $ price range ($400-$700 would be a nice range since, again, I'm looking to buy 2). Along with being bi-tone, a medium weight/recoil/grip, relatively easy to switch out barrels so we can practice with smaller, cheaper ammo etc etc etc. I've got all kinds of criteria & so far, the witness elite match & the SA XDM have come to the top of the list.
I did love shooting the S&W 1911 but I just don't think it's financially feasible. Not only that but I don't know if my wife's hands would find a 1911 comfy, I doubt it though. I have big palms but sorta short fingers (hey now, get your mind outta the gutter people) & I had no issues with the pistol. She's kinda hardcore though so we'll see what happens at the range next year when she comes down to the states again. I've already decided that when we do end up going, I'm gonna tell her "We CAN come back, baby! You don't have to shoot ALL the guns today."
As far as the shotgun advise goes, I can tell you know your stuff & I'll copy & paste it to my notepad doc that I started when my buddy ArkansasHunter began to help me getting started with some info.
Thanks so much!
DR
__________________ OIF 09-10 acta non verba
so many guns, so few hands
CURRAHEE!
Don't know about the witness...but I prefer GLOCKs to XD-Ms
As for shotguns...Mossberg all the way, can't go wrong with 500, 535, or 835.
If you're not dead set on a polymer pistol, I like the 1911s.
LOL p.s. Welcome to G&G!
Thanks for the warm welcome billy. I know that some people really love glocks so I'll certainly check them out, if for nothing else, because they have such a huge variety to go with their track record. And for the shotty, our Army shotguns are mossberg 500s & can you believe I've never got to shoot 1????? THAT'S BS! I've never shot even 1 bullet from a shotgun ever! It's kinda funny that we even have them here since they're completely ineffective in the current environment with the types of missions we do. 1 of my brothers has 1 though, the 500 as well, & he said when I get home I can shoot it to see what I think. Oh yeah, what model glock & what cal do you like & why? Thanks very much.
DR
__________________ OIF 09-10 acta non verba
so many guns, so few hands
CURRAHEE!
DogRomeo, welcome to G&G... have fun as i can tell you already are... lol! and ya for got the button for "none of the above, i want a real gun so im buying a 1911"... lmao!!!!
Thanks brother. Yeah, I'm gettin' right in the thick of things here, just my way I guess you could say. So what do you think, is there a good 1911 that fits the criteria I wrote a couple replies above to G. Green? I put it all out there, price range, ammo cap etc. Thanks!
DR
__________________ OIF 09-10 acta non verba
so many guns, so few hands
CURRAHEE!
I carry a cheap Mil-Surp CZ 82 semi-auto and a 18.5" barreled pumpaction 12ga. shotgun.
I carry the shotty in case I pizz off a Big Foot
Are you the guy I saw up in the tree with some branches in your hat & earth-tone face paint on? Sir, you are pretty much my idol lol! Stay vigilant, never know when big foot will strike again!
DR
__________________ OIF 09-10 acta non verba
so many guns, so few hands
CURRAHEE!
Shakoomakoo habibi! 
My wife was an infantry grunt up in Canada & then became an officer. She gave it all up & is immigrating to the US, & as of right now I'm waiting on the paperwork to get here to me
. I've got 2 brothers; 1s a Marine who's deployed 3 times here & the other's AF who outranks both of us & has never deployed. My dad was in the Navy & then Merchant Marines & is a machinist. My mom is a home health aid who somehow copes with our deployments quite well & I get my positive attitude from her & my brains from my dad.
I'd rather you ask & then have an honest answer from me then assume something incorrectly based on either BS or rumor or "well back then it was like this" 'cuz now, IT'S DIFFERENT!
MOVE
lol! Stay vigilant, never know when big foot will strike again!
