Howdy from New Mexico!

[Seeleenickel]

Howdy all!

Cary from New Mexico here.  Purchased my R51 in January and really, really like that little pistol.  I've been shooting since I was about 6, starting with my father's original Ruger Bearcat .22.  Currently my wife and I have a wide variety of pistols, revolvers, rifles, and shotguns, in a wide variety of calibers.  I reloaded my own ammo starting around age 14-15 with my father's equipment. and then got away from it for a while after I left home.  Got back into reloading around 1997 and started casting my own bullets soon after.  I've cast thousands of 9mm projectiles, and handloaded thousands and thousands of 9mm ammo in my life!

Speaking strictly of 9mm:  Between my wife and I we have an Egyptian "Danshway"-Beretta 1951 clone (Made by Maadi in the 1950's for the Egyptian military/police, and my first 9mm), a Ruger P-89, a Smith & Wesson M&P Shield, and the R-51.  The Shield is technically my wife's pistol, but it turned out that it doesn't function well for her, so her current favorite carry gun is a little Taurus Ultra-Lite .38+P, while mine is the R-51! 

(Oddly, the Shield works just fine for me, so I shoot it and she doesn't, but I still like the R-51 better.  She likes the R-51 too, so potentially I see another one in our future.)

Out here in my part of New Mexico I'm very fortunate to have a lot of BLM land close by...like a block and a half away.  I can be plinking in less than a five minute drive, and perhaps a 10-15 minute walk.  We've lived in the same house since 2002, and I've never lived anywhere else where I could shoot that close by.   We also have a backcountry place about a 3.5 hour drive from home.  It's on some acreage, so we have a 100 yard range set up there.  My wife and I are proud members of the "gun culture", and we try to shoot every week.  Every day when we are at the backcountry place!  We are both NRA members and stay paid up years in advance, and got a few more years ahead this year when all the anti-2nd Amendment nonsense started rearing it's head a couple months back.  We're pretty vigilant about our 2nd Amendment rights, and definitely vote accordingly.  Also members of GOA and the Second Amendment Foundation.

New Mexico is an interesting dichotomy when it comes to firearms.  A predominantly Democrat legislature for over a half a century, a Democrat governor for half the time, yet very few restrictions on firearms ownership.  No waiting periods.  Open carry fully legal and often seen.  No restrictions on magazine capacity.  Can keep a firearm in the glove box/center console, etc.  Our state might be a bit screwed up when it comes to the economy, but for gun owners, it's pretty darned good.

We've recently also gotten back into fishing.  My wife hadn't fished since she was a little girl with her dad, and I probably hadn't fished in around 20 years, since I lived near the Colorado River/Lake Mohave in Bullhead City, AZ.  We're looking forward to goin' fishin' tomorrow!

I'm looking forward to some R-51 discussion, as I'm pretty enthusiastic about the little pistol.

[R51Fan2017]

Glad you love your new pistol! Welcome to the forum too! Here in Louisiana, we no longer need a permit to carry, either open or concealed (last time I checked). I wish open carry was so commonplace here as it is there, but unfortunately it is a rare day to see someone carry open. I have thought about it myself, except I just want to keep from scaring the civilian population! You know, the OMG the "guy with the gun" hysteria, and the sideways looks you tend to get here, despite being majority Republican! Anyway, welcome aboard, and we look forward to talking here on the forum! 

[funflyer]

Welcome aboard Cary. We've got the same privilege out here in Arizona, plenty of forest service land to use as a shooting range. I also have a Shield 9 but it doesn't get carried much anymore since I got the Shield 45. Both have been absolutely perfect, but the 45 is a much nicer shooter and more accurate than the 9. Now my favorite 9mm is my new R1 Enhanced.

[Engineerpower]

What part of NM are you in? I was stationed on the Missile Range for a couple years, very interesting place. Just over the Organ Mountains from Las Cruces, love the food culture there!

[Seeleenickel]

Glad you love your new pistol! Welcome to the forum too! Here in Louisiana, we no longer need a permit to carry, either open or concealed (last time I checked). I wish open carry was so commonplace here as it is there, but unfortunately it is a rare day to see someone carry open. I have thought about it myself, except I just want to keep from scaring the civilian population! You know, the OMG the "guy with the gun" hysteria, and the sideways looks you tend to get here, despite being majority Republican! Anyway, welcome aboard, and we look forward to talking here on the forum! 

Howdy!

Thanks for the welcome!  I lived in Marrero, LA, on the West Bank outside New Orleans, back about 1996-98!  Didn't do a LOT of shooting there, but did a lot of reloading.  I had a buddy who was on the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Dept. who had access to a "range" (of sorts) out in the swamp,, I want to say it was off Hwy 90 somewhere between Waggaman and Boutte..he also had a Class 3 FFL and a fully legal fully auto Tec-9 (I think it was!) .  First and only fully auto I've ever fired.  The "range" was on a little peninsula about wide enough to drive down, but surrounded by water on three sides.  It was difficult to find one's spent brass!

Louisiana has Constitutional Carry now?  Outstanding!  I don't remember seeing too many folks carrying openly out there.  Around here it's so commonplace I rarely even notice.  One of my sons often carries a .44 AutoMag.  I love my Ruger Vaquero in .44 mag, but that AutMag is a LOT of gun for me.

[Seeleenickel]

Welcome aboard Cary. We've got the same privilege out here in Arizona, plenty of forest service land to use as a shooting range. I also have a Shield 9 but it doesn't get carried much anymore since I got the Shield 45. Both have been absolutely perfect, but the 45 is a much nicer shooter and more accurate than the 9. Now my favorite 9mm is my new R1 Enhanced.

Howdy and thanks for the welcome!

I love Arizona!  I lived in Bullhead City (A couple different times, 91-96 or so, and again from 98-2002) before moving over here to New Mexico in 2002, but often go back around Alamo Lake and up around the Colorado River north of Havasu to camp, jeep, explore, etc.  My wife and I would like to move back out to AZ, or Nevada, and we've been exploring that possibility for a while.  Seems we almost alway head west for vacation.

[Seeleenickel]

What part of NM are you in? I was stationed on the Missile Range for a couple years, very interesting place. Just over the Organ Mountains from Las Cruces, love the food culture there!

I'm up outside Farmington, near the Four Corners area and the Colorado border.  Closer to Bloomfield actually.  I've only been down around White Sands once, when we took a 3 day weekend trip to Lincoln, Roswell, Carlsbad.  We camped one night in the Guadalupe Mtns. that trip.   I've always wanted to go back down on one of the two days per year that the Trinity Site (First Atomic explosion) is open to the public.

[R51Fan2017]

Howdy!

Thanks for the welcome!  I lived in Marrero, LA, on the West Bank outside New Orleans, back about 1996-98!  Didn't do a LOT of shooting there, but did a lot of reloading.  I had a buddy who was on the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Dept. who had access to a "range" (of sorts) out in the swamp,, I want to say it was off Hwy 90 somewhere between Waggaman and Boutte..he also had a Class 3 FFL and a fully legal fully auto Tec-9 (I think it was!) .  First and only fully auto I've ever fired.  The "range" was on a little peninsula about wide enough to drive down, but surrounded by water on three sides.  It was difficult to find one's spent brass!

Louisiana has Constitutional Carry now?  Outstanding!  I don't remember seeing too many folks carrying openly out there.  Around here it's so commonplace I rarely even notice.  One of my sons often carries a .44 AutoMag.  I love my Ruger Vaquero in .44 mag, but that AutMag is a LOT of gun for me.

I know almost exactly where you are talking about off Hwy 90. Yep, good shooting country! I have friends that live in Gretna, and Kenner and have been down that direction a lot in the past. Nowdays, I stay up north as travel is just getting to be too expensive. I used to pack a full size Gov. Model 1911, but it got tough in the summers around here to conceal that bear thumper, so the R51 is much more comfortable to carry around!