DSC_0300

I grew up in California for most of my youth, and the thought of owning a gun never even crossed my mind. After graduating high school, I moved out to Oklahoma to move closer to extended family and friends. It was a culture shock from day one. Within a week, I was invited to go hunting with some of my cousins. My first experience with a gun was not pretty. My cousins handed me – someone who had never fired a gun – a pistol-grip mossberg 500 with magnum slugs . . .


I lined up the sights and fired. I was rushed to the ER. Three dental surgeries and a broken jaw later, I quickly developed a fear of guns of any kind and was content with never touching a firearm again.

I joined the Air Force three years later and dreaded the day that we had to go through firearms training. The instructors trained us on proper sight alignment,weapon positioning, and handling. The first time I pulled the trigger of that M16A2 my heart was beating like a jackhammer. That day I realized that not only was my fear relatively unfounded, but I enjoyed it.

I’ve spent years enjoying firearms since. Many of them trying to find what I deemed the “perfect” carry pistol. I’ve carried everything from a Beretta Nano to a Combat Delta Elite, but I always had complaints in one what or another. I loved the feel of the M9 when I was in the military, all metal with a DA/SA trigger and a safety, but it was too large to carry every day.

After much deliberation, I settled on a CZ P-07. I loved my CZ75 SP01 and I heard good things about the P-07 and P-09. The first time I picked it up, I fell in love. Great ergonomics, hammer-fired, DA/SA trigger with a smooth pull, and light enough to carry. While I still occasionally pocket carry the Nano in a holster on hot days, I almost always carry my P07 and I haven’t looked back since.

(See the rest of the posts in this series here. Send your What I Carry and Why submissions with a photo to [email protected] with WICAW in the subject line.)

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

29 COMMENTS

  1. Bravo…..my PO7 is on my hip everyday. For me, it IS the perfect carry gun. Accurate, dependable and a natural point of aim….I Love mine too….many thousands rounds through mine without a hicup. Nice writeup ….thanks…

    • Cruel? They deserve to get the crap kicked out of them. At least when the incident happened they did, who knows what kind of people they are now.

    • Ditto. I’ve seen people at the range hand new shooters airweight .357s, those people are dicks. Handing a new shooter a pistol grip 500 with magnum slugs is several levels above “dick”.

  5. Question for Jeremiah:
    Where/how do you carry the karambit? Homemade sheath?

    On a separate but related note, I can’t stand people that pull that BS and potentially ruin somebody for life on firearms. Especially with women. Makes me want to throat punch them. So dumb. Glad you overcame their stupidity and negligence. And good choices.

    • Dale Smith – The karambit is an Ontario Knives Company EOD karambit. The sheath that I use comes standard with the knife. It has a loop, so I usually attach it to my belt on my left side vertically. I wear a full suit for my job, so my jacket covers most of it. If I’m wearing a t-shirt, then I’ll take the belt loop off and use Velcro straps to attach it to my belt horizontally.

      As for my cousins, I don’t think it was as intentional as it sounds. No offense to people from Oklahoma, (a lot of my family is from there), but my cousins are pretty stupid when it comes to firearms handling in general. Worst thing I ever saw one of them do was check to see if their 380. pistol was clear by pulling the trigger. He ended up putting a hole in the floor and deafening all of us in the room for a few hours, so dumb and stupid, but not mean-spirited (as far as I know.)

      • Even if they were stupid, why was it loaded with magnum slugs? And they REALLY didn’t know you shouldn’t put the shotgun right against your face? I can understand being an asshole, but dental work is not cool, and any risk of that happening should put to bed any idea of pranks.

      • They wanted to watch you hit yourself in the mouth with a 6lb club but didn’t realize it could cause serious injury?

        Sort of like the guy who handed his lady friend a 454/480/500 revolver, not realizing it could rotate 180° and she might pull the trigger again while wrestling with it?

        When I was about 10, I had an idiot friend shoot an arrow straight up. He laughed at me when I ran into the garage, thought I was a coward. I thought he was the biggest moron on the planet.

  6. I always felt the beretta 92 was a well made gun but it was just too big for its caliber. I enjoyed shooting both the 92 and the cz 75. But I much preferred the 75. I have no experience with the p series of cz.

  8. “My cousins handed me – someone who had never fired a gun – a pistol-grip mossberg 500 with magnum slugs . . .”

    That’s some nice extended family you have there. So sweet that you moved to be closer to them. Personally, I would keep my distance.

  9. “My cousins handed me – someone who had never fired a gun – a pistol-grip mossberg 500 with magnum slugs . . .”

    People who do this kind of thing should flogged, then tarred and feathered.

  10. “My cousins handed me – someone who had never fired a gun – a pistol-grip mossberg 500 with magnum slugs… I lined up the sights and fired. I was rushed to the ER. ”

    Sounds like either you have really stupid (or mean) cousins, or else you just suffered a gross breakdown in communication. Glad this didn’t permanently sour you on guns. Or your cousins.

  11. If you have never experienced it, you should try a P-07 with a Cajun Gun Works hammer. That good trigger gets great with that modification.

    • Thanks for the plug. Can I assume you mean their 91000 P Series Hammer (the only other one I see is an OEM replacement).

      I also carry and love my P07 9mm. I changed out the safety for the de-cock lever from CZ.

      • Cajun makes a P series hammer, CZ Custom sells a P series competition hammer made by CZUB so it is legal in production/SSP

  12. At least it’s not another Smith M&P or another Glock. They’re both good guns, I just thought the obvious reason for this line of articles was to show the DIFFERENT pistols people carry….love the two knives b.t.w. most people only carry one.

    • I carry two knives because they both fill different roles. The karambit is for heavy duty work like boxes, maintenance, and self defense. The applegate Fairbairn is my edc pocket knife. More general purpose stuff like chores, packaging, etc.

  13. Indeed. A break from the “I carry a Glock”-of-the-day story. I personally carry a CZ, but it’s one of the old metal framed 75s. (Actually it’s a couple of them; I go through a rotation but they all work and feel the same and mags are downward interchangeable.) Both the polymer and metal framed CZs are solidly reliable, I’d not hesitate to pick up a P-07/09 if it was on and for some reason my gun wasn’t available, but it happens the metal ones fit my hands better, and they’re a touch less bulky–the smaller you are, the more important that is. (In my hands, the P-07 and P09 are wretched pointers, so clearly, mileage may vary from person to person.)

  14. Good man. I used to carry around a CZ RAAMI for CC, but switched over to a P07 since I was getting more range time with that, plus it doubles as an immediate home defense firearm. It was obviously bigger, but I personally don’t mind the size.

  15. Your cousins are the worst kind of gun owners! Glad they didn’t completely ruin gun for you forever.

  16. M-9 too big to carry. Nonsense my 5’4″ wife doesn’t have a problem but you did say you were in the Air Force.

Comments are closed.