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Hey, I'm 76 as well! I began my life of shooting at age 6 with my dad's 1915 US Navy issue Colt M1911. So I guess that trounces your much younger Woodsman :)

We live on the top NW corner of Cambridgeshire, England, but don;t hold that agin us. We are Oregonians by adoption, and until covid spent a deal of time every year in the state with friends up and down a line West of the Cascades.

I shoot around three times a week, 1850's ACW muzzleloaders to modern .308s. See my Youtube channel - tac's guns.
I accept my trouncing on age of oldest gun cheerfully. Already no contest given the black powder guys here. Hey, I've been reading your posts and enjoy the England/Oregon mix. Didn't know you have a YouTube channel. Will check it out.
 
The only Glock I own is a Gen 3 Glock 17. I like it, but I shoot better with all metal guns. A little weight really steadies things. I have TBI and am on disability and don't drive anymore so I rely on public transportation. Taking the light rail at night is always a fun experience in Portland. Surrounded by people, I tend to depend on .32s and .38s for self-defense, whereas in Arizona I routinely carried a .45 or .357 mag. A lot a people think I am being silly with mouseguns these days, but I just sleep better that way.
In addition to shooting better with metal guns, I also find the weight not irritating but reassuring. For woods carry or when walking around my neighborhood I prefer .357 or .44 mag. But we have bears and a resident neighborhood cougar. Our cougar is polite and stays hidden during daylight hours. But pets left outdoors tend to disappear. For carrying in Corvallis or when going places by car or when at home I load my EDC down with .38 sp, as I don't want to blow out one or both of my eardrums firing a .357 mag indoors or in a car, which can happen. A .357 makes roughly twice as much noise as a .38sp, 9mm, or .44 sp. I don't envy you needing to take the light rail in Portland at night regularly. In that situation choice of gun and ammo need to take into account not wanting to harm innocent bystanders. These days, I always use a cane. Mine is solid hickory and from Cane Masters, a dual purpose walking/fighting cane. So that gives me way more options than carrying just a gun.
 
I have TBI and am on disability and don't drive anymore so I rely on public transportation. Taking the light rail at night is always a fun experience in Portland.
If you must regularly ride the MAX at night, and if you have not already done so, I strongly encourage you to get some concealed carry insurance such as USCCA, US Law Shield, ACLDN, or one of the many other 2A insurances that you folks down in Oregon can still buy, but which is no longer available to us Washingtonians thanks to our benevolent overlord and king, Jackboot Jay Insee, and his turd-gargling sycophant AG, Sideshow Bob Turdguson. If you are forced to defend yourself in Portlandia with your firearm, you will be hounded, persecuted, and prosecuted by an anti-2A DA (Mike Schmidt) who would just love to throw a senior citizen such as yourself into the hell that is Potland's jailhouse. No matter how good your shoot, you'd still be headed to jail.The past 2 years in Portlandistan have demonstrated thus.
 
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In addition to shooting better with metal guns, I also find the weight not irritating but reassuring. For woods carry or when walking around my neighborhood I prefer .357 or .44 mag. But we have bears and a resident neighborhood cougar. Our cougar is polite and stays hidden during daylight hours. But pets left outdoors tend to disappear. For carrying in Corvallis or when going places by car or when at home I load my EDC down with .38 sp, as I don't want to blow out one or both of my eardrums firing a .357 mag indoors or in a car, which can happen. A .357 makes roughly twice as much noise as a .38sp, 9mm, or .44 sp. I don't envy you needing to take the light rail in Portland at night regularly. In that situation choice of gun and ammo need to take into account not wanting to harm innocent bystanders. These days, I always use a cane. Mine is solid hickory and from Cane Masters, a dual purpose walking/fighting cane. So that gives me way more options than carrying just a gun.
I should look into something like a hickory cane. That is a fabulous suggestion.
 
If you are forced to defend yourself in Portlandia with your firearm, you will be hounded, persecuted, and prosecuted by an anti-2A DA (Mike Schmidt) who would just love to throw a senior citizen such as yourself into the hell that is Potland's jailhouse. No matter how good your shoot, you'd still be headed to jail.The past 2 years in Portlandistan have demonstrated thus.
Yes, this is my fear. USCCA insurance is definitely necessary here.
 
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The only Glock I own is a Gen 3 Glock 17. I like it, but I shoot better with all metal guns. A little weight really steadies things. I have TBI and am on disability and don't drive anymore so I rely on public transportation. Taking the light rail at night is always a fun experience in Portland. Surrounded by people, I tend to depend on .32s and .38s for self-defense, whereas in Arizona I routinely carried a .45 or .357 mag. A lot a people think I am being silly with mouseguns these days, but I just sleep better that way.
If necessary, shoot for an eye.

Even with a .22, any eye will do. Trust me on that one - thirty-three years in the Army wasn't a complete waste of my time.
 
If necessary, shoot for an eye.

Even with a .22, any eye will do. Trust me on that one - thirty-three years in the Army wasn't a complete waste of my time.
Seems to me there's an interesting story in there somewhere... 🤔
 
Well the feds know already ... Newport, where NOAA now lives!
YAY!!!!

We bin there.

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Uh, p'raps I should have made it clearer, I'm in the van, the guy propping up the light pole is the same one that's sitting next to me in the avatar pic on the left - known among tribal members as 's'kenwaskaq'ttlpkn:q:qwaitita'at' - or 'he who eats the popcorn of a friend'.
 
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If necessary, shoot for an eye.

Even with a .22, any eye will do. Trust me on that one - thirty-three years in the Army wasn't a complete waste of my time.
@tac sounds like he has direct experience. I don't, happily. But I can add some theory that supports his advice.

The human skull is really light compared with, say, that of a hog or bear. A direct shot to the skull from even a .22 at close range can penetrate a human skull easily if it directly hits a flat or indented area at a 90 degree angle. A bullet that hits the eye is especially likely to penetrate into the skull and do maximum damage to the brain because the bullet has no way to deflect and the bone behind the eye is also very thin. The eye shot is best if you can make it. Its best at getting into and doing maximal damage to the brain. And only derailing the brain or spine is guaranteed to stop a human or other animal instantly. Sure, bad guys are often stopped by damage to the chest. But that depends on the personality and situation. A deer shot through the heart with a high-powered rifle, with his heart totally destroyed, may run for a hundred yards or more before collapsing. Grizzlies are more dangerous than black bears in part because the blacks, when injured, usually cease attacking and run. Many attacking grizzlies get more angry than ever if injured and use their time while dying to take you with them. Most people are like black bears. Some are like grizzlies. If your assailant is like a black bear, shooting them in the chest might work to save you. If they are like a grizzly, or are hopped up on drugs, or happen to be wearing a bullet proof vest--readily available these days--if you don't incapacitate them instantly by shooting them in the brain or spine, you will probably die. And there will be yet one more video of a bad guy absorbing many shots to the body and more remarks on this forum about how 6 or 10 rounds aren't enough. And of course 6 or 10 rounds may not be enough put into the body. While one shot even of a .22 would have been plenty to cause instant incapacitating if put into the braiin.

The human skull over the brain is only more or less flat over a limited area. The rest curves. And a round nosed bullet that hits a curved surface such as bone will often deflect instead of penetrating. Bullets from semi autos are pretty much all round nosed to some extent, even if hollow points, as they won't feed properly otherwise. Even the bullets called flat-nosed, when for semiautos, have just a tiny flat portion, the meplat, with rounded edges. Revolver bullets meant for high penetration against bears or hogs are usually heavy hardcast flat nosed bullets with wide meplats with sharp edges. These are good at penetrated heavy sloped bear skulls as well as not getting deflected much by brush. These bullets are not normally used for self defense in cities or homes or populated areas as they penetrate too much, go through room and house walls and endanger bystanders. So most revolver ammo for defense against humans are hollow points...which when they hit a curved surface may act like round nosed bullets. So if you aim at the eye of a human assailant, if you are off by enough to land the bullet at the outer edge of the eye socket the bullet is much more likely to just make a surface wound and deflect off the skull.

I'm not a good enough shooter at moving targets to aim for the eye of an assailant who is charging me. (And if they weren't charging me or had a weapon in hand I wouldn't be shooting them. I'd be trying to chase them off, no mess, no fuss, no inconvenient bodies that have to be explained.) In my self defense drills I aim to put one or two shots into the center of the head at eye level depending on time available and two or more into the chest at heart level. I don't think in terms of aiming at an eye, even with a non-moving assailant, as just slightly over an inch off could land the bullet outside the eye socket where it would probably be deflected. A shot between the eyes hits the skull where it curves in, so won't deflect. If I'm off by 2-3" in either direction its an eye shot rather than a deflection or total miss.
 
Old Irish sayment - 'Tá sé níos fearr rud a bheith agat, agus gan é a bheith de dhíth air, ná é a bheith de dhíth air agus gan é a bheith agat.'

'It is better to have a thing, and not need it, than to need it, and not have it.'
So that's where that saying came from! Those clever Irishmen...
 

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