Quote:
Originally Posted by Hoopsdoc
Looking to buy my first handgun(I own several shotguns). I’m looking for recommendations on a decent gun at a reasonable price. Something I can keep for protection and is also fun to shoot.
Suggestions?
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General guidelines for a first handgun (Unless you're going to CC):
Buy American. Note that several 'foreign' manufacturers have factories in the U.S., such as BerettaUSA, SIG-USA, etc. In the event of a problem getting help is much easier, shorter turn-around, and less expensive. Also American handguns are just about the best in the world. Most American gun companies offer some kind of limited warranty or have an implied warranty, such as Ruger that will repair or replace a gun almost regardless of issue/damage/fault/age. Most foreign manufacturers aren't nearly as easy to deal with and you have to read the fine print in their warranties, plus pay overseas shipping rates. Both ways.
Buy a full-size (FS) gun. Bigger guns are easier to manipulate, easier to shoot straight, absorbs recoil more, and usually have higher capacity.
Buy a gun with a proven history. Don't make the mistake of buying something that was just designed last year. It usually takes 2-4 years for a company to work out the bugs in any new design, making it more likely you'll end up with a defective part or manufacture if the thing came off the drawing board yesterday.
Buy a gun with a large aftermarket parts/accessory field. Guns nowadays are designed to accept all sorts of aftermarket parts, such as night sights, red dots, lasers, triggers, weapon-lights, etc. You shouldn't necessarily overload your gun with accessories but some of them might be extremely helpful on the range or in a gunfight. All handguns that I own that I might use in SD/HD get speed dot type iron sights(AmeriGlo I-Dot), and a weapon-light at the minimum. A couple have lasers, and one has a red dot. The capability to hang accessories on a gun also makes it a little more resaleable.
Buy a polymer gun. I wasn't always so sanguine about plastic fantastic guns, but the fact is that these things are reliable, durable, and just as accurate as any stock HD-type handgun. Plus, they all are very similar in their operation, controls, and field-stripping procedures. So if you've seen one . . .
But the biggest advantage to polymer guns is that just flat require less maintenance and care than an all-metal firearm. Taking one down and doing your due diligence with cleaning and maintenance literally takes less than five minutes these days and that includes putting it back together.
Or you can neglect to clean and lube the thing for several months to a year and it's not a problem. As a test, I once put several of my handguns through 12 months of shooting once a week, about 2,000 rds per gun without doing any maintenance whatsoever. All but one performed throughout with nary a failure, and the other might've actually been due to a bad round. This was not possible a couple decades ago with most all-metal handguns.
Suggested manufacturers:
S&W
Glock
Ruger (Sturm, Ruger & Co.)
SIG-USA
BerettaUSA
Springfield Armory
Colt
Walther Arms -USA
Final note:
Using a handgun for SD/HD actually requires a fair amount of training and practice. The reality is that handguns were and are and always will be 'last-ditch' weapons for close contact combat. Pistol calibers are by necessity rather small and underpowered, they are difficult to aim at longer than arm's reach, and thus a lot of training is required to become proficient in SD/HD type shooting. If you aren't interested in putting in the effort and time, I respectfully suggest that some kind of PCC (Pistol Caliber Carbine) would be a much, much better choice for home defense purposes. PCCs are much easier to aim and shoot effectively, require less overall training, are more accurate out of the box even for newbies, and usually have significantly more firepower.