A few questions.

L

Landosen

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Heya.


I had a few questions that I wasn't able to find answers for with the search function.

If I had a fail with search, please just re-direct me.

So what is going on here is I am JUST getting ready to start my new hobby in a block of spare time I have available.

What I am very aware of is that many of the handguns out there only fire ONE caliber in the same body, but there are very FEW that fire 2 or more caliber in the same body.....what I am trying to say here is that The Glocks fire 9mm or 45. Both expensive rounds if I am looking to put several thousand rounds down range. So far the only body that I have found that fires the cheaper .22 or .22LR is the PPK bodies. So what I am trying to figure out is what other handguns you know about that have a cheaper caliber that I can work out my basic shooting stuff, without costing me a bundle....then purchase another handgun in a higher caliber to start working on my real shooting skills?

Finally, the PPK isn't really a handgun that interests me too much. What I would like is a glock. Is there are REAL difference in feel and accuracy when you change handguns bodies? The idea really is just to save some money here, and I'm not sure I should be messing about with personal reloads yet when I have barely even started my hobby.

Thanks
L
 
You can get .22 top ends for many of the pistols out there. The CZ's are popular but fairly pricey and many outfits make them for the 1911's

Personally I'm plenty happy to have an excuse to own several different pistols in all kinds of different chamberings.

Different grip angles and such are really only going to be an issue if you are trying to work on instinctive fire-quick draw type drills. Or you have real trouble finding comfortable guns.
 
It is worth buying a seperate .22 and then get a quality 9mm or larger calibre. The .22's are usually cheaper and allow you to keep shooting without dissassembly and reassembly when your hands are cold. It's just plain worth it.

If one gun bites the dust for a reason then you can still keep plinking away.

Each gun does feel different. Choose carefully more on the feel of it rather than it's look or history
 
Yup I agree.. A separate gun for each caliber you want to shoot. In the end it will make you a better overall shooter. Otherwise you might end up being only a good shooter with "your" one gun.

You can purchase a .22 pistol for pretty cheap. A Woodsman at Marstar is under $200 with 2 magazines and shipping (I own one and love it).

Or you can purchase a pretty passable 1911 Chiappa for about $300
http://www.theammosource.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_3_185&products_id=583
 
How about a .357Mag/.38spl revolver, the .22LR will seem pretty lame after shooting the bigger calibers. I started out with .22LR and can get fair accuracy with them now but the larger calibers are more of a challenge.
 
There is a 22 top end for the Glock, but sub calibre training leaves a lot to be desired as far a second shot accuracy, recoil control and over all gun 'feel' goes. Right at the moment (if you're not reloading) there is a very reasonable quantity of bulk 9mm ammo out there for quite reasonable prices. Oh yes, and the Glock 9+45 are very different frame sizes, even a lot of Glock guys have issues with the 45 frame.
 
OP....if your considering a 1911 in .45 ACP one day, may i suggest a GSG in .22.
The gsg is a 1911 that is designed for .22LR. If you like it and shoot well with it move up to a .45, you wouldn't even have to change holsters:p. If you find that you don't like the gsg, sell it here on the EE it won't last long as they are popular. Blueline sells and services them.
 
First off have you held/ played around with anything?? I wanted a glock as my first gun and jumped into it. Cant say I made the wrong choice cause I love it. Its a Gen4 9mm. You may want to try shooting dif calibers before purchase. I made my choice based on having shot .22's to 45's during my range pro-b shoots!

A .22 leaves alot to be desired and as enefgee stated, as far as handgun ammo goes the 9mm has some reasonably priced stuff. I shot MFS 1000 rounds without a problem for $99 +tax. Yes .22 sell for the dirtiest of the dirt cheap but you will soon want something better. In my opinion a 9mm is very comparable to a .40 and definately not far from a .45. 9mm's have a sharp, crisp snap while shooting while .45's have a softer feel but all shoot similar. .22's u dont even feel!!

If your set on a glock its seems the Gen 4's have now worked out their kinks with the RSA's and ejectors. Its a solid platform that has my vote all the way with the price being right. Ill never put down sig's and berettas but they will run you a little more $. A glocks nothing fancy. Its a precision tool that has been around long enough and has enough ppl interested that they can offer it at an economical price. Ive put 2000 +/- rounds through mine and all has been well. Others will quote 5000 or 10000 +/- without even cleaning the d*amn thing. Your $, your choice. Try them out and whatever feels best go for it. Oh and regardless of what ppl say, clean your gun. Idc what it is, bottom line its a tool that requires upkeep you want it to ALWAYS work!!
 
Landosen, I can see from the terms used in your post that you're still learning about some of the options.

First off very few guns will shoot different calibers FROM THE SAME GUN. A few notable exceptions are;

  • Some .22's will shoot .22short, .22long and .22long rifle (.22LR). But most semi auto .22's will only shoot .22LR and not the others.
  • A .357Mag revolver will also shoot .38Spl. The .357Mag being a stretched version of the .38Spl so it has the same bullet diameter and case dimensions other than length. The difference is small but it means that you can't load .357 cases into a .38Spl revolver. This was originally done as a safety measure to avoid exactly this sort of mistake.
  • .44Spl will shoot in a .44Mag gun using the same idea as the .357Mag/.38Spl.
  • Ruger has a line of single action revolvers that will shoot closely related ammo that share bullet sizes. These "Convertable" models come in 9mm/.357Mag and in .45acp/.45Colt. The .45 example actually uses the same diameter bullet. With the 9/.357 there's a slight difference which is the topic of lots of discussion about how it affects the accuracy or not. Both of these models come with two cylinders to allow this sort of caliber switching. You can't put the one ammo into the other cylinder and have it work.
  • 1911 semi auto guns have a stable enough design that they are almost like the "Lego Set" of the handgun world. If, for some reason, you were to buy one and then buy a new slide, barrel and magazines for other calibers you could switch between a pretty wide number of calibers. But keep in mind that you're basically building a whole new gun to allow this each time. You can't load 9mm ammo into a .45acp magazine and then shoot it from the .40S&W barrel and slide. This sort of nonsense just won't work or would be highly dangerous.
  • There's one or two other more specific examples by this gives you the idea.

So while there are these exceptions normally you can't actually widely different calibers from a single gun. For example you can't shoot 9mm and .45acp from a single gun without doing some changes to the slide and barrel and using a different mag. But Glocks, 1911's and other guns have MODEL LINES where the same platform can be purchased in a variety of chamberings. But each can only shoot that ONE that it's built for.

I don't know where you got the idea that you can buy a PPK. I wish it were that easy. A PPK with a stock barrel is a prohibited class of gun. So you can't buy one. At least not unless it's been converted to a longer barrel which sticks out a ways and has been re-registered as "Restricted". But there's any number of really nice .22 semi auto handguns that you CAN get.

Or, as mentioned by many, you can buy top end and magazine conversion kits to let you shoot .22 with the frame from a number of other guns. But such converson kits are not commonly sold to allow converting between various center fire calibers. The issue I have with these kits is that they generally cost as much as a whole other gun when you look at the cost of a nice .22 semi auto. And I'd rather have the whole other gun.
 
Thanks for all the advice people.

Although I guess I didn't make it clear, I am aware that you can't swap out barrels from the same body to put different calibers without 'kits' that are semi-permenant....I just wanted to make sure that the company makes the SAME body with a different caliber that was cheaper before buy a second handgun of the same model and start putting bigger calibers down range. That way I am not leaning a new gun at the same time I am learning to handle a higher caliber.

So for the most part I will shop with my hands now as a few have mentioned that until I get it in my hands I just won't know. So now I'm all set to head out to the grange tomorrow to try out a few of the handguns they have there to use. Sorry if my noobie jargon confused anyone. From the research I did, I didn't know that those Walther PPK .380 ACP Pistols had been retooled....I had only really been referencing the fact that it uses the same frame for it's 22 version and it's 9mm version.

Thanks again.
L
 
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