Wilson Combat EDC X9 (courtesy thetruthaboutguns.com)

Psychologists claim experiences are more important that things. Don’t buy your kids expensive stuff; do something with them they’ll remember forever. Fair enough — for children. For adults, it’s a false dilemma. For example, this is the year I bought a Theater of Magic pinball machine and a Wilson Combat EDC X9. The first . . .

is a toy that delivers thousands of hours of fun. The second is also a toy that delivers thousands of hours of fun.

WHAT? A gun is not a toy! They are tools to be respected! If you want to praise a handgun, laud its efficiency, accuracy and reliability. Talk about its value for personal defense. Do not recommend it for its ability to plaster a smile on your face.

So should I feel guilty for all the pleasure I get from carrying and shooting the EDC X9 (more than I feel guilty about everything else, being Jewish and all)? I think not! Anyway, the first time I shot the Wilson at steel targets at Best of the West Shooting Sports was my gun-related highlight of the year. What was yours?

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62 COMMENTS

  2. After Sutherland Springs, I decided to get serious and got my CCW. I now carry every day. That’s my highlight.

  3. My most exciting Gun related experience was: picking up my Stainless Steel Wilson Combat CQB Elite, and a few weeks later, using it to cut a Playing Card in half! Oh yeah, I’m TOTALLY blind!

  5. buying my 2nd cz at the curb outside a tavern. the first, a full size 75omega led to a compact. when the car pulled up i texted “kompressor?” and he affirmed.
    i like the omega trigger better in single action, the compact is much easier to haul around.

  6. Not hearing the President push for banning “assault weapons” and “weapons of war” after every mass shooting. No he hasn’t been perfect on guns but still a refreshing change from past years.

    • Yeah buddy! I just got my stamp in the mail two days ago for my first SBR. Gotta be one of the first lawful non-SOT SBRs in Iowa.

  8. My bought me a Stag Model 10
    24″ bbl in 6.5 Creedmoor with a 6X24 Vortex for optic. That was a good birthday.

  10. I had a bit of a zen day at the pistol range a few weeks ago, and shot a ten round string with a 100% score and 6 X’s on a B-8 bullseye target, standing 2 handed, at 25 yds. It was also a cheat because I was shooting slow fire at about 4 to 10 sec. per shot on a timed/rapid fire target.

    My calipers tell me it would have been a 95% with 2 X’s on a regulation slow fire B-16 target. For many folks that’s nothing special, but I usually have a tough time breaking 90% on the B-8 or 80% on the B-16. I normally struggle with hand steadiness and smooth trigger pulls. The pistol is a Browning BuckMark with a Burris FastFire II.

    • Got my first SPR stamp early this year too. Spend the rest of the year feeling like a dang fool consideing the diversity of LEAGAL pistol “braces” that have become available. Now, I kinda of think that ATF couldn’t care less about enforcing SBR laws.

  13. In 2017 I was finally able to find the CZ’s I’ve been looking at for a long time (SP01 Tactical, P01 and the 2075 Rami. The icing was having a brand new never fired C10 C fall into my lap for about $150 less than retail. Life is good.

    • sounds good, but those model numbers… 75 with rail, alloy framed compact and sub- compact double stack… or something.

  15. Used (barely) Beretta 682 Gold found at a gun shop last January. Stock already modified with adjustable butt and cheek plates, recoil reducer and a release trigger which I have grown to love.

    I’m fairly tall and shotguns don’t fit me well without some custom fitting. To buy this shotgun new and pay for all the mods myself would have been beyond my budget. But this was under $2K and shooting trap has become so much more enjoyable!

  17. Bought a Sig P320RX. Took me awhile to adjust to the red dot (why is it shaking so much…it must be defective!), but now these tired old eyes love it.

  22. I went to the “shot whisperer,” the old guy at the gun range. He spent two hours with me wringing my shot out. When it was over, I was overlapping splatters on a 6′ steel circle at 300 yards, again and again and again.

  23. Getting my. 22LR supressor and shooting it on my Walther p22. Hollywood-movie quiet. Then going to an indoor range with my son and shooting a WW2 replica submachine gun. Ear to ear grins on both our faces!

  26. For Hoosiers, I’d have to say the Pinner v State decision. It has substantially the same impact as constitutional carry, i.e. drastically reduced interference by law enforcement.

  28. I bought my first glock. Couldn’t be happier with it. Also got my wife a ccw and a sccy 9mm. All in all an awesome year.

  30. 1. Shooting our new 22 dueling tree with my young boys.
    2. Shooting coots from a kayak with a buddy using my SX3.

  31. More than a few highlights come to mind but my top 3 are:

    3. Finally finding a load that I am satisfied with for my AR,
    2. Getting competent at moving while shooting with my pistols and AR,
    +1+. Taking my oldest daughter shooting and, after telling me she had no desire to shoot the AR, watching her grin ear to ear as she nailed the steel with it.

  32. Dang Robert, $5000.00 for the pinball machine?! You could have bought ANOTHER awesome pistol and played Theater of Magic on XBOX One…

  33. Simply being able to get back to semi-regular range time. That and deciding not to sell the stainless GP100 after all 🙂

    • Ahhh, very good Grasshopper.
      May the Force (Ruger) be with you.

      (That’s mixed, mixed metaphors.)

      LoL
      I kill myself sometimes…

  34. Getting my CCW and learning in December that my son will be getting his. I therefore sacrificed and gave him an early Christmas present– my Ruger SR9c.

  35. Not being charged with that trumped up Domestic Violence charge, that would have been it for me and my pellet gun( no you can’t own a pellet gun either, rifled) barrel. And that DV law ought to be changed, misdeamnor, gun loss for life, no exceptions.

  37. Finally finding a nice, reasonably priced, 9mm Browning High-Power to round out my modest collection of vintage FN-Browning pistols.
    And NO, it’s not going to stay a ‘safe-queen’! It’s already been out to the range, and I’m planning more trips there.

    Happy Motoring, Mark

  38. Woke up January 1 2017 to Donald Trump as President Elect, Hillary Clinton as a defeated loser, and soon to be able to scrape the presidency of Barack Hussein Obama from the bottom of my shoe.

    As a gun owner, an American, and a Patriot that was one of the best days ever.

  39. Ending the year on a really high note…
    Getting a S&W Model 10-7 snub as a present.
    Complete surprise that rocked my world.

    My second best group of highlights were the peeps that I turned on to guns for the first time this year. I will forever remember the ear to ear grins and can die knowing that i did good in the world.

    • OMG!!
      First post of the new year!!!
      (And the second.)

      Keep yer powder dry boys n girls.
      Have a great healthy and prosperous New Year !!!

  40. I’ve had quite a few highlights this year, but I would say the big one was, after almost a decade of rabid collecting, I have pretty much filled my safe with my must have guns. I have a few kits to build, but nothing except for a Trapdoor springfield or a M1D Garand are on my serious want list right now.

  41. Shooting my 1st 25 in a round of skeet.
    Shooting in my 1st major IDPA match. (Illinois State).
    Getting my dad to the range. He’s a golfer, but I bought him 20 gauge Mossberg 500 for home defense.

  42. I was browsing a local gun forum and saw that a dealer had just acquired a huge collection of high-end guns and was selling them off at ridiculous prices. I bought a Sig X6 B&W for less than they were selling for new when Germany was still allowing the Sig Mastershop guns to be sent to America. I can easily sell it for 2.5 times what I paid for it but it shoots so well I will never sell it.

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