Well, my old Bostitch brad nailer finally died. A faithful warrior, it shot more 18 ga brad than I ever thought i would use. It made it about 10 years without a hitch and shot on more trim than I can imagine. There is a chance I can resurrect it, but it is old enough now that many of the parts aren't available anymore. If it is a broken "o" ring or a couple of other pieces, it will be back up and running.
It died at the end of the day on a job, and I finished up with another larger finish nailer. That night, I went to HF, and those sombitches had a new 5/8" to 2" brad gun for $18. I like the HF gun well enough, but don't know much about their reliability. The gun finished up the trim and shot well. I still can't bring myself to rely on it, though. Not sure why.
I am eyeballing this one. I have a couple of other Hitachi guns, and the are great. I found this on Amazon, and it is certainly reasonable enough at $62 with free shipping.
I had another trim gun that had the safety to the front and hated it. I am concerned about any of the brad guns these days as only Bostitch will tell you how many foot pounds of driving force the gun has. I need a gun that will punch through oak crown that is being shot onto oak cabinet styles with no hiccups. I also use the 2" brads for securing base molding (excellent, painter loves the tiny holes), hanging interior doors, hanging small crown, etc.
The Bostitch did all that with ease, and that is what I expect from a new one. I want driving power. In case I have to buy another gun (the HF will go to backup) I want to get one on the way if need be as I might be starting a remodel in the next couple of weeks.
Oh yeah... no Porter Cable pneumatics. When doing gun maintenance, my air gun repair guy won't touch them. He doesn't like the design on them for one reason or another, and his opinion is good enough for me.
Robert