Question about possible trade-in value and opinions on concealed carry

[NoSlackDelta]

Hey all,

I may as well give you some background since I'm new here, so I'll make it as short, and relevant to the topic, as possible.

My primary reason for owning a firearm is for self-defense purposes. I had always planned on owning one for the house, but one night in particular spurred me into action. I was living in Tennessee at the time, and was still in the Army. My girlfriend (now wife) lived about 2 hours from post (Ft Campbell, KY) so I would really only ever get to see her on the weekends, during which I would stay there and then leave late on Sunday nights to drive back to the base. One Sunday night I had stayed later than usual and at around 10:30 I was getting ready to leave when there was a knock on her front. This was particularly odd because
A - While not what I'd exactly call the 'country' or anything, she lived in an area where it was a quiet neighborhood, with a good amount of space between the houses. So while she knew her neighbors, she was never really THAT close to them, etc. Certainly not close enough that one would come by unannounced at 10:30 on a Sunday

B - The only person could conceivably have a reason for stopping by would be her brother, who literally lived right down the street. Only problem is that if he did come over, he would certainly be using the garage entrance like he always did.

Anyways, we go to the door to answer it and see a strange man neither of us had ever seen before on her porch. We, without opening the door, asked him what he wanted and he asked us if he could come in and use the phone. He said that he was waiting to be picked up by his friend at the intersection near her house, and that he was her neighbor from across the road.

This guy was clearly an idiot because if anyone has lived anywhere for a decent period of time, they generally know at least what their immediate neighbors look like. Another problem with his story was that, in both directions, for 3/4 - 1 mile down the road it was nothing but field. The next house was pretty far away. What also didn’t make sense was the excuse that he was getting picked up at that particular intersection, because it seemed like it would just be a really out of the way, odd place to have someone pick you up at night. No street lights, no reason to choose that particular intersection over the busier one that crossed route 31 a half mile up the road.

So, not being idiots, we told this guy "No, you can’t come in and use our phones." He then asked if we could call his friend for him, which we also declined to do. He then left.

We were left a little uneasy about the situation but didn't really know if we should call the cops or anything. After a few minutes I realized that he might have gone next door to "use the phone" and that there was a good chance that the woman who lived there was home alone due to the fact that her husband was a firefighter and worked odd hours. So I immediately grabbed the best weapon available, an ASP baton..... , and went over next door to make sure everything was alright. Everything was fine over there, the guy had disappeared, but it definitely left me a little rattled. If we had stupidly opened the door, thinking it was her brother, he could've easily forced his way into the house. While I probably could've easily taken him in a physical match (he was a little taller than me, but very, very skinny), if he had a gun, or knife, it could've been a really bad situation.

I also later found out that this wasn’t the first time strange occurrences had taken place at her house. A couple times after recently moving there she had come home to find a strange car parked in the driveway, and when she went down and entered her garage, the car had backed out of there and taken off rather quickly. Another time a similar incident had happened when a stranger came to her door. This time she saw the person wearing a baseball cap, assumed it was her brother, opened the door and when quickly realizing it was someone she didn’t know, she was able to slam the door and after a conversation took place (which I cant remember what was said...no direct threats or anything were made but the guy didn’t have a good reason for being there) she called the police, and then her brother. The brother actually drove over and saw the guy walking on the street, stopped him, and asked in a pretty harsh tone why he had chosen his sister's house to go to. The guy gave some stupid answer and then ran off.

So, based on that incident I experienced and learning of those other incidents, I decided it was definitely the time to buy a gun. My main concern after all this was that she should be able to defend herself if anything serious were to happen. What kept going through my mind was "what if I had been halfway home that night, and she had mistakenly opened the door again. She's 5'1 and only about 100 pounds, even with a thin, weak-looking guy like that there’s no way she would've been able to defend herself. And even if she was able to call 911, the police response time in that area is pathetic. It likely would've been a horrible, horrible situation". Maybe that’s the paranoid part of my mind acting up, but I don’t think (based on what happened that night and my general gut feeling about the guy and that situation) that I'm that off the mark in my assessment. Add to the fact that from Monday-Friday night she's basically there by herself, alone. If anything happened, I certainly would never be able to get there in time. Sure, there’s a chance her brother could get over there (and he did own a gun) but what if she wasn’t able to call him, etc?

So I immediately went about establishing residency in Tennessee, which wasn’t too hard. Get a drivers license, register to vote, have a current piece of mail from the local address and boom, resident and able to purchase a firearm. I went to a local gun store and picked out a used H&K USP .40 (full size, not compact). I figured the .40 would be all the stopping power I'd want and still be relatively easy enough for my girlfriend to use in case she needed to.

Fast forward to present day, I've moved back up to PA (thank god) and now I'm thinking about finally applying for my LTCF. A few issues to hurdle first, I have to re-establish residency in PA. Which is a bigger pain in the ass than it should be considering that it's on record that I had a PA issued drivers license a few years ago, but to get a new one I need a copy of my birth certificate and social security card. Neither of which I have, and my parents who kept hold of them my entire life, have no idea where they are. To get a new SS card, I need a certified copy of my birth certificate. To get a certified copy of my birth certificate, I needed to mail a request to the appropriate records department is Massachusetts, where I was born. I had to pay to get it expedited, but I just want to get this taken care of so I can easily re-establish residency here, as well as renew my passport (which has also expired.


***
Anyways, to finally get to the point, I want to get my LCTF, but the full size HK USP .40 isn’t going to be the best pistol to try to carry concealed. I'd like to try to trade it in and put whatever I would get for it towards paying for a SIG p229, probably also in .40 caliber, to use for home-defense as well as concealed carry.

I know trade-in value is going to depend on several variables, but can anyone give me a rough estimate on what I can expect to get for the H&K, as well as what the SIG 229 will cost?

I'm probably going to go with the 229 because I have an ex-military friend who lives in the area and also carrier that particular pistol, and swears by it. That and the fact that I've heard a LOT of good things about it. But just in case, does anyone have any other suggestions that they would be far better than the SIG 229 for carry purposes? I'd like to hear some opinions on the matter.

As a side note, the other home defense weapon I'm definitely going to be purchasing some time in the near future is the Mossberg 500 Tactical Persuader.



-yes, my post was probably longer/detailed than it needed to be

-yes, I understand that I'll probably get a few 'tl;dr' and 'cool story bro' comments, and I'm fine with that since it's probably deserved.

-apologies for any spelling/grammatical errors.

-to the people who read that whole damn thing; Thanks for your time.

[GreenBlood10]

What's the condition of the USP? When trying to determine what prices are going to be, gunbroker.com is your friend.

GB

[Xringshooter]

I'm not at home right now so I can't really get a line on what your gun might be worth. That is where GunBroker comes into play, you can see what others are trying to sell theirs for. Next:

Anytime you trade in a gun you will not get near what its worth. The dealer wants to make a profit on both guns so he's not going to offer you what it's worth on the open market. Your best bet to get the max out of it would be to sell it yourself, it's really not that hard to do. There are several ways to go about it; you can list it in a classified ad on any number of forums (PAFOA, HK, etc) which are normally free or list it in on one or more of the gun auction sites. You can even list it in your local "Bargin Sheet" if you want. Selling it this way will garner you more than if you trade it in.

[Shawn.L]

Just because your buddy was in the military doesnt mean he knows shit about guns.

If your dead set on a Sig find yourself a used older model, I wouldnt trust any current production Sig pistols.

http://www.firearmstrainingandtactic...ead.php?t=1006

And if your new to firearms the DA/SA guns will generally be harder to learn on than something with one consistant trigger pull. If your hooked on the Hk line look into the light LEM, its a decent conistant trigger.

If your open to other options just buy a GLOCK. I dont own any personally, but they are fine guns that work and are simple to operate and keep up with a plethora of accesories to go with them available anywhere.

Buy a used GLOCK. Just dont buy a 4th gen, they dont run yet. Take the money you save and get yourself a good quality basic firearms course from a repuatable instructor.
Youll find a good list here:
http://www.firearmstrainingandtactic...splay.php?f=34

[chivvalry]

Buy a used GLOCK. Just dont buy a 4th gen, they dont run yet. /forumdisplay.php?f=34[/url]

Thought they had the Gen 4s under control now with the replacement lighter springs?

[Shawn.L]

Thought they had the Gen 4s under control now with the replacement lighter springs?

which lighter springs ? They have a few diff springs out and other "fixes" for a problem they wont acknowledge.

At this point I wouldnt touch one until they have a good long run of actually being fixed.

[NoSlackDelta]

Just because your buddy was in the military doesnt mean he knows shit about guns.

If your dead set on a Sig find yourself a used older model, I wouldnt trust any current production Sig pistols.

http://www.firearmstrainingandtactic...ead.php?t=1006

And if your new to firearms the DA/SA guns will generally be harder to learn on than something with one consistant trigger pull. If your hooked on the Hk line look into the light LEM, its a decent conistant trigger.

If your open to other options just buy a GLOCK. I dont own any personally, but they are fine guns that work and are simple to operate and keep up with a plethora of accesories to go with them available anywhere.

Buy a used GLOCK. Just dont buy a 4th gen, they dont run yet. Take the money you save and get yourself a good quality basic firearms course from a repuatable instructor.
Youll find a good list here:
http://www.firearmstrainingandtactic...splay.php?f=34

No offense but the guy with the SIG is a close friend and I trust his judgement/opinion when it comes to firearms. As far as Glock goes....meh. It isnt a style issue either, for whatever reason I just dont care for the feel of the ones I've held and fired at the range. They're absolutely fine, great quality weapons, but for whatever reason I'm just kind of indifferent towards them.

[Shawn.L]

No offense but the guy with the SIG is a close friend and I trust his judgement/opinion when it comes to firearms. As far as Glock goes....meh. It isnt a style issue either, for whatever reason I just dont care for the feel of the ones I've held and fired at the range. They're absolutely fine, great quality weapons, but for whatever reason I'm just kind of indifferent towards them.

no offense taken, I am afterall just some guy on the internet.

But my advice stands on investing in some quality initial training. IMO your life is worth it, and while I may be just some guy on the internet your likely to be able to talk to some people who really know a thing or two about using a firearm in the training industry.

In the end its not a harware problem your trying to solve

as X-ring said though, resell at a dealer will ass rape you. If I want a quicker sale I'll list it at that dealer offered price on here anyway and at least give the other guys here a good deal. I have a Hk for sale right now on here actually.
Search gunbroker and auctionarms for listings and see what they ACTUALLY sell for, not just asking prices.

[harold63]

If you can squeak up the coin, I would keep the HK. Your new wife will need some HD/SD while you are carrying (unless she will be attached to your hip, as well). There are some very good carry options in the $400 range, or less, if you shop wisely. Some gun shops will hold a gun for you while you pay installments (don't know your financial sit.) The newspaper can provide some good deals in that you don't pay dealer profit (aka getting raped) and you help your fellow man (or woman) get out of a pistol that did not work for them (not in a mechanical sense). Be patient in your shopping.

[harold63]

BTW, I never answer an unexpected, after dark knock without a G21 in my hand. It is a scary world out there.