TexasCHLforum.com

Welcome youngGun! Glad to have you "officially" aboard! :-)

Yes, a lot of great info, and great members, here and I think you'll like sticking around for a while!

Welcome J-in-H! Glad you found TexasCHLforum! Yes, a lot of great info here... I think you'll enjoy the company, too!

Welcome bruiser69! You know what you really need to add to that collection? A GLOCK 19!!

Welcome Popshot! And greetings to fadlan12, too! (I would say "Welcome!" to you also but since you've been around here for a while already, you must certainly know you are!)

Welcome Liberty, and RussP! Glad to see you both on board!

RussP... I suspected that you were one in the same from that "other" forum when I saw you were from Virginia... then that Tucker leather cinched it!

Also glad to see another person with the right outlook on our 2A rights getting involved in the political scene, Liberty!

Welcome!

Just read some more of the First Time Pistol Buyer thread and should you decide on a GLOCK 19, I think you will be very happy with it should it fit your hands well. I have one and love it, although I've only put about 1,250 rounds through it since I first inherited it in February.

Welcome P-Ratt and Thane!

As a fellow noob of sorts, I'm sure you will find not only a lot of great people, but TONS of valuable info here... I have! (And I'm still not through looking!)

Welcome Reysc!

As a newcomer myself, I can assure you that you will find LOTS of great stuff here, both in information, and in some great people that freely share their knowledge earned through experience.

Sorry I didn't make it in the thread before now, kbarrick, but from from another new member of the site, WELCOME!

And, as carlson1 mentioned, you will find a wealth of information here (or at least I have!), and with your experience I'm sure I'll be finding even more!

Thanks (again!) Charles for the welcome! Yes, growing up on the ranch was VERY NICE! Unfortunately it’s no more, as he sold it off about 20 years ago, and it’s now a subdivided and heavily populated area up in Alto, NM (outside Ruidoso). Due to all the other housing that’s gone up, I’ve never seen the deer population so high! When I was there a few weeks back, every morning a herd of 32 (at last count) does, fawns, at least one spike and a 7-pointer would graze by the driveway. That’s not counting all the deer bedding down in peoples front lawns that could be seen when driving into town after sunset!

I moved to Midland, TX in `80 for work, met my wife (Kathy) and got married in `87. In `88 I hooked up with a company called Software Etc., and over the next 10 ½ years was relocated 7 times throughout the Midwest to take over problem stores/districts before I was laid off due to downsizing after a failed merger. They left me out to dry in St. Louis, but we both wanted to get back home (Texas), so I joined up with Gateway Country, as they said they would be opening new stores in Texas the following year (2001) and would give me one of them to run. Then THEY had financial/inventory problems which resulting in downsizing (and later in the closing of all their 300+ “Country� stores), so I was let go again. We had enough, so we spent our savings on getting ourselves back to Texas. We figured Arlington would be a good place, right between Ft. Worth and Dallas, especially since I didn’t have a job at the time, and rented an apartment there. I've read a few posts from others here that had been laid off, and feel their pain. For me it felt like what a divorce must feel like, as I had given my _all_ to that company. It took quite a while to get over it, but as they say, life goes on!

We now live in a rental house in North Richland Hills, and appreciate having a back yard again (our last one was with a house we had bought in Kansas City, MO, but had to sell 6 months later to stay with the company that later dumped me). We’re not ready to BUY a house yet, but when we do, it’ll definitely be in the DFW area.

PS – Glad you clued me in on the PM... believe it or not, I actually DID wonder!

--David

Greetings!

I’m new to TexasCHLforum.com (but not new to gun use/ownership), and wanted to thank everyone for all the valuable information I’ve found on this site so far. It’s been great, very helpful, and needed! I put together an introduction with a little bit about myself, so here goes...

I'm in my mid-forties, an IT Manager, and was raised on a cattle/horse ranch in the mountains of New Mexico where I enjoyed all the benefits of having such a life, including hunting, fishing and general outdoor fun and respect for the wilds. Before my father passed away a few weeks ago, I owned a bare mix of guns consisting of a Winchester Model 320 .22 I got on my 12th Christmas, a Remington Model 11 16 Ga. (it used to be my granddad’s, though I grew up dove hunting with it), and a Winchester Model 94 .30-.30. I had at one time also owned a Colt 1911 9mm, a Dan Wesson .44 Mag. w/ 6� bbl., and a Winchester Commemorative 94 .30-.30, but foolishly lost those in pawn during a stint of great stupidity in the mid-80’s (still have the ammo, though).

Dad always enjoyed his guns, among them a small collection purchased at a PX in Japan when he was stationed there as a Lt. Col. in the Marines in the early `60’s, and which he had stylishly engraved by a Japanese smith (nothing super great, but nice none-the-less). Between us three sons, I knew my picks would be limited, but feel fortunate that I ended up with the Winchester Model 88 .243 (I’ve only dropped two bucks in my life, and both have been with that one... a Muledeer on the ranch, and a Whitetail here in Texas), and a GLOCK 19 that he had recently bought new and shown me when I visited during the holidays in 2004. I told him that I thought he chose an excellent handgun for self-defense, especially at his age (81 at the time), and since his other handgun was a Colt SAA .44-40. I also wound up with a Ruger 10/22 .22 and a Springfield-Stevens single-shot 16 Ga. (since no one else really wanted it, and the 12 Ga. was already spoken for, I figured it would make for a nice companion to my Remington 11).

Yes, I know that there are some really fantastic guns out there, and aside from all the “GLOCK-madness� that's going on these days, the G19 fits my hand perfectly and was my pick right after that .243. I like 9mm (already have a decent stock of 9mm ammo to boot, albeit somewhat dated), and have truly missed having a nice handgun around since I let the Colt and Dan Wesson go. A different pick would have no doubt given me a rifle of more monetary value perhaps, but I wasn’t picking for value... only sentiments (.243), desire (9mm), or usefulness in getting my wife to join me for target practice (the .22, 16 Ga. and 9mm, too).

Anyway, the past couple weeks or so has been spent gleaning the net for info, cleaning guns, and general eagerness to get back into the groove of things. Having been “out of the picture� with regards to hunting and target practice for the last 15 years or so (relocations galore with a previous company didn’t help matters), we're both over-ready to visit a range this weekend!

I've always supported our 2nd Amendment right, and although I've never found myself in a situation that called for lethal force in defense of myself, family or home (knock on wood... though I certainly would if necessary), I almost feel that, especially after discovering some of the facts uncovered during the past weeks, applying for a CHL to almost be an obligation, if nothing else than to add to the number of individuals that are on record as willing to apply our rights others fought so hard to keep from being taken away. I feel that I must have had my head buried DEEP in that proverbial sand during the last decade and a half, and have only recently come to realize just how close I came, without even really realizing it, to having heartbreak far greater than loosing those guns to pawn in the `80's!

I hope I didn't ramble-on too much, and can contribute back to TexasCHLforum.com in ways that provide value to others. Thanks again for all the great info!