First pistol advice

You’re thinking about 3-Gun.

IDPA is shot by near-sighted, middle-aged guys wearing either “shoot-me-first” vests or loud Hawaiian shirts.

Yes that's it exactly ! I have a whole closet full of obnoxious and garish shirts and I figured, meh, what the hell. Might as well use them for something !

In all seriousness though, I didn't know the Shadow 2 was too heavy for IDPA. It's the first I've heard of it, but then again, I don't know all the ins and outs of the sport yet.
All I really want to do is get my feet wet, so to speak, and just start shooting and getting better as I go along. Maybe one day down the road I will go IPSC, and then I will revisit the Shadow 2.

I will most likely go with the Sig or the Shadow 1. And it will certainly be a used one at that. Not going to pay full store sticker price for my first, that's for sure.

I appreciate all of the awesome advice everyone here has provided. It is very well received. Thank you !
 
Since you said IPSC, just go with a used Shadow 1. Known quantity, easy to get parts for, good for both IPSC and IDPA. Try out a couple with different grips to see what works for you. Maybe you can get lucky and find a used Shadow with the grips you like. Otherwise, add $100 to your budget for new grip panels.
 
You’re thinking about 3-Gun.

IDPA is shot by near-sighted, middle-aged guys wearing either “shoot-me-first” vests or loud Hawaiian shirts.

Hey! I resemble that remark! And I use a Glock and an M&P. Am I a lost cause?

With all you Lycra wearing, toned, muscle bound, CZ toting IPSC guys, someone has to speak up for the blind, fat, loud shirt wearing crowd!

PS except jimbo14. He has bad tastes in hats!
 
Hey! I resemble that remark! And I use a Glock and an M&P. Am I a lost cause?

With all you Lycra wearing, toned, muscle bound, CZ toting IPSC guys, someone has to speak up for the blind, fat, loud shirt wearing crowd!

PS except jimbo14. He has bad tastes in hats!

That’s tooooo funny...loud shirts rule.....apparently...
 
Have experience with all but the Sphinx. My vote is for Shadow, only because the 2 is too heavy for your game. Buy new - it will be cheaper than most of the used shadow EE ads

**
Don’t know how I titled this with a wink. Oh well.
 
You’re thinking about 3-Gun.

IDPA is shot by near-sighted, middle-aged guys wearing either “shoot-me-first” vests or loud Hawaiian shirts.

Ah feel younga already. Yellow Hawaiian shirts if you got any class at all though I have a preference for blue.

Still Active - I will be down your way around the 10th of August. Took the Optic off of the PPQ. I intend to shoot SSP at the WA State Match with it using irons. As slow as I am with irons I am even slower with the Optic. Two of the young wannabees at my club wopped me at our last shoot. One of them was even using an old Hi-Power. Ma ego can only take so much bruzzin ya hea.

Take Care

Bob
ps K22 looks like he got puked on by a guy who just finished an Hawaiian pizza and a dozen Moosehead while in the shower with his flower studded, studio designed dollar store undersized shirt. And he is considered one of the better dressed members.
 
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Yes that's it exactly ! I have a whole closet full of obnoxious and garish shirts and I figured, meh, what the hell. Might as well use them for something !

In all seriousness though, I didn't know the Shadow 2 was too heavy for IDPA. It's the first I've heard of it, but then again, I don't know all the ins and outs of the sport yet.
All I really want to do is get my feet wet, so to speak, and just start shooting and getting better as I go along. Maybe one day down the road I will go IPSC, and then I will revisit the Shadow 2.

I will most likely go with the Sig or the Shadow 1. And it will certainly be a used one at that. Not going to pay full store sticker price for my first, that's for sure.

I appreciate all of the awesome advice everyone here has provided. It is very well received. Thank you !

Getting your feet wet shooting IDPA is alot easier in the spring time if you are running sandals...which I hear is encouraged. :)
 
Getting your feet wet shooting IDPA is alot easier in the spring time if you are running sandals...which I hear is encouraged. :)

Only if they have red blinking lights on the back of the heels with green stripes on the side. Helps the scorekeeper from getting lost.

Take Care

Bob
 
Hi all,

Ok, I know, yet another "what should I get" post. However, in this case I have narrowed it down to a couple of different choices.

First off, I am going for my range safety in a few months at my new club, although I don't have a ton of experience, I have been shooting a fair number of different pistols over the past few years at various rental places like silverdale, urban tactical, vegas etc. so I have a good idea as to the type of pistol I want. Something I can use for general target practice and eventually get into competition (IDPA).

Firstly, and sorry to offend some of the fanboys, but I hate glocks. They simply don't fit my hand properly at all. Not a fan of striker fired and polymer pistols in general actually.
So the choices I've narrowed it down to are

1. Sig P226 - 9mm
2. CZ Shadow 2 - 9mm
3. Sphinx SDP - 9mm
4. A decent 1911 - 9mm

I've shot each of these and they all felt and shoot great for me. Just having a hard time narrowing it down to one.

Pros and cons for each for a first time buyer?

Thanks in advance!

Perhaps I'm out of topic, but I am always perturbed by comments that Glock doesn't fit.

No offence, but since you are asking this question, I assume you have limited experience with handguns. My first suggestion to you is to find somebody with the right kind of experience, meaning someone who can shoot most any handgun well, and ask him to show you how to grip a handgun properly.

I shoot revolvers, and semis of the polymer and steel types and have no issues with any of them not fitting my hand. Most if not all handguns are designed and manufactured by companies that know what they are doing, and ergonomics is one thing they work on very very hard to get right. Do you think Glock dropped the ball on their ergonomics?

I am not an expert handgunner, but my first firearms instructor taught the basics of handgunning by starting with the proper grip. Once I understood the concept of a proper grip, I liked the ergonomics of any and all handguns, except perhaps the single action revolver style. My favorite is still the 1911 ergos, but Glocks are fine notwithstanding its grip angle which takes seconds to get used to.

Not a Glock fanboy, but I am sorry I just think some shooters should not miss the chance to shoot Glocks because they think Glocks don't fit their hands well. Learn the proper way to grip a handgun, and you will, for the most part, like them all.
 
I thought a burner was a phone.
I find Looky much easier to understand, oh well, This is Canada and many different languages are spoken here:)

The term burner can be applied to any item that serves a single use purpose and can then be disposed of without risk of being traced back to the user. As soon as it is used once it is considered burnt, and gotten rid of.

Phone, gun, car, safe house (less common), etc.
 
Perhaps I'm out of topic, but I am always perturbed by comments that Glock doesn't fit.

No offence, but since you are asking this question, I assume you have limited experience with handguns. My first suggestion to you is to find somebody with the right kind of experience, meaning someone who can shoot most any handgun well, and ask him to show you how to grip a handgun properly.

I shoot revolvers, and semis of the polymer and steel types and have no issues with any of them not fitting my hand. Most if not all handguns are designed and manufactured by companies that know what they are doing, and ergonomics is one thing they work on very very hard to get right. Do you think Glock dropped the ball on their ergonomics?

I am not an expert handgunner, but my first firearms instructor taught the basics of handgunning by starting with the proper grip. Once I understood the concept of a proper grip, I liked the ergonomics of any and all handguns, except perhaps the single action revolver style. My favorite is still the 1911 ergos, but Glocks are fine notwithstanding its grip angle which takes seconds to get used to.

Not a Glock fanboy, but I am sorry I just think some shooters should not miss the chance to shoot Glocks because they think Glocks don't fit their hands well. Learn the proper way to grip a handgun, and you will, for the most part, like them all.

Ever heard the expression "dragging the wood"?

The problem with glocks for a lot of people is the same thing that glock advertises as a key benefit of their design. The low axis of the bore in the hand. If this feature was universally a good thing without some trade off, every manufacturer would be doing it.

The cost of that low axis of the bore is an incorrect alignment of the web of the hand in relation to the trigger. Unless you have suffered a hand injury, an outstretched trigger finger reveals roughly a straight line of bones from the tip of the finger to the wrist, and the thumb can comfortably point out at a 90 degree angle.

When I grip my sig, the top of the beaver tail rests at such a height that my outstretched finger is perfectly straight and inline with the trigger. When I bend my finger into the trigger housing, it is a simple 90 degree bend with the bones in my upper finger still straight and aligned with the bones in my hand straight into my wrist.

Kind of like this. https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/...-DfkBJXgpKikDZA9hFLon10c70j7I7gdwz_srhewwIpbM

Note that the top half of his finger is parallel to the axis of the bore. This is critical.

Compare that to the Glock. When I grip a glock, the gun sits so low in my hand that the natural alignment of the trigger finger actually runs along the receiver above the trigger, like this. https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/...rt13i4igl_L9E3gCEHSTP5m0DDKjT4CGY_bbjq__3pIqA

That means when I go to reach the trigger on a glock, I have to reach DOWN on an angle, which requires me to torque my finger into the trigger housing. https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/...an1BZxCUPvJp-w-bUk6j5HeNYrsalfgsWVafNPJCWpq7A

The boxy square shape of every glock receiver also means that I can not put my finger on the trigger without also contacting the receiver. Squeezing the trigger is impossible without dragging my finger along the receiver. "Dragging the wood". The combined result being my trigger squeeze is neither straight nor smooth.

I demonstrated this issue to one of the senior instructors at Glock, in their booth at shot show. We tried 12 different models. Every available backstrap. He confirmed I had a proper grip. His conclusion: "Weird, never heard of that before". He seemed genuinely baffled. After consulting with some of his peers, he identified this was in fact common, and that it had never bothered anyone before. His solution was to not let it bother me. My solution is to use a gun that lets me squeeze the trigger with a natural straight smooth trigger squeeze without contorting my fingers unnaturally or getting used to discomfort.

Yes, these companies have mountains of experience researching ergonomics and producing the perfect pistol. There is still no such thing as one shape fits all. There are many many different shapes and proportions to hands and fingers. Some people fit glocks no problem. Some people don't fit, but don't seem to mind.

Whether they can articulate it or not, I suspect a number of people who don't think Glocks fit their hand suffer a similar issue.

Interestingly, in writing this post, I went down to my lock up and pulled out every pistol I have, gripped it, and inspected the relationship between angle of finger reaching the trigger in relationship to the axis of the bore. Without exception, the closer my finger was to parallel, the more comfortable it felt.

Interesting that you mentioned those single action revolvers, because my two revolvers were the ones with the most extreme misalignment, and were also the ones that felt the least comfortable.

You mentioned in your post that the grip angle on the glock takes seconds to get used to. I would suggest that this might be true for some people. Some people can get used to the extreme grip angle on revolvers quite easily and are capable of marksmanship that continues to make me blush. Others take more time, possibly a lot of time, or may never get used to that grip angle, and in any event, Glocks aren't so much better (or at all) than other guns as to be worth all that effort trying to overcome something that by design will be difficult to overcome.
 
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