Sounds like you are already very well armed. How old is the Model 25? Will it take full length .45 Colt cartridges? Some of them had a weird short cylinder, so we had to deep seat bullets and crimp over the front driving band instead of into the crimping groove.

So, yeah, as long as you know what you are getting into, and it sounds like you do... enjoy. Those X frames certainly impress the spectators...

It is a pretty old 25 and does accept full length cartridges with room to spare. We inherited it actually.

As for the .460, I doubt I will get one at the prices the get for them. I spent a bit on the 1911 to get one that shoots under a 1" group at 25 yards so that if I miss it is my own fault. I would rather use the money for a CCW spoon for my daughters 21st birthday and a pocket spoon for myself and ammo for them. Would probably still have cash left over for supper!

Yeah, those big burley X frames certainly ain't cheap. But, then again, neither are the diamond studded, pearl mounted holsters required to properly display them so as to impress your adoring fans.

You're a wise man. Buy real guns for the real world, and take the missus out to dinner to boot.

I don't know about wise, but I try to be practical. That's why I would use the sheath of a Javan Rhino for a holster to save weight!

Here's a question about optics aka sights. I'm going to order the target 22LR linked above. I think I want an optic because my eyesight is worse than my hands, if you know what I mean. The choices are confusing. This will be for target shooting at up to 25 meters, usually indoors. What do you all recommend? A tube type red dot, an open type red dot, a traditional "scope", etc?

My eyesight isn't getting any better either. It's getting harder and harder to shoot my preferred open sights and peep sights. That said, eyesight is actually kind of over-rated when it comes to shooting well. Even if what you see is blurry, if it's consistently blurry, you can still shoot quite well.

I struggle with any kind of an optic on a handgun. I've tried them all at one time or another. If you have friends who shoot them, or a local range with rentals that can provide them, I would strongly suggest you "try before you buy". The whole dynamic changes. Field of view through scopes is quite small, or through any "tube" type of optic. The "holographic" ones are really weird, in that they completely remove any sort of "instinctive" component to the shooting. I really, really struggle to even find the dot in many of them. Maybe with practice it gets better...

IMHO, hands are more important than eyesight when shooting. With pistols the risk is always one's tendency to flinch. And that has nothing to do with eyesight. Learn to eliminate the flinch and you'll be a tack driver. With rifles, it's breathing and hands. I am not real good at the breathing part, but I know that's a bigger problem than my aging eyes.

For me, I find a scope on a hand spoon the most difficult to acquire a target with. If you find traditional iron or iron/fiber optic difficult to see ask someone that has a reflex if you can try it. If nothing else, get a $25 airsoft pistol and a $12 reflex. A reflex will correct for parallax more than a tube style red dot.

Uncorrected, my vision is - ahem - like 20/900 or "off the scale" as one place put it . . . Costco won't even make glasses for me any more, I have to use the expensive places. I can see a front sight fine, the target is blurry - but I guess that's how it is if you go around the sun enough.

Holographic may be the way to go.

I am legally blind without corrective lenses, but not that bad. With contacts I see very well except up close because age, but find a reflex easy still for close range stuff.