Help a total noobie pick a good first handgun?

[BP7]

also food for thought, if zombies invade there wont be any mag restrictions. 1911 holds 7 or 8 bullets. some 9mm hold 17

or 33

actually i was gonna mention a .357Mag revolver cuz you can easily shoot 38 Special for cheap manageable practice, and toss in the occasional 357Mag for BANG. mind you, i don't yet have my RPAL so i'm just thinking from a newbie perspective like you

if you REALLY wanna kill zombies, a DE 50AE looks like a nice gun. bigger than 45!!! holds about the same number of rounds. probably twice as heavy - good for getting-back-to-basics pistol whipping once you run out of ammo.

 

[deets]

Not a revolver fan, sorry.

Even the 1911 looks a bit "dated" to me. I'm looking for something with some technical chops, and I will likely be looking at upgrades down the road. Sounds like Glock is a good option after all...

EDIT:

>if zombies invade there wont be any mag restrictions.

Can you even own a 17 round mag? How does the law on this work, you can own a large mag and not fill it all the way, or are 17 round mags illegal to possess?

>buy a 9mm first, and use it as a stepping stone and save money on ammo til you can afford a nice .45

I think I might just do that.

In Canadia you have to permanently pin your magazine to the legal limit. 5 with semi-auto center fire rifles and 10 with all pistol magazines. However, if the magazine is taken apart (very easy to do) you can own all the pieces to make a non-pinned magazine. As long as it is not assembled it is perfectly legal

 

[josquin]

Not a revolver fan, sorry....

OK, we can still be friends.

As Deets posted earlier, whatever you get now will almost certainly not be your last handgun. Resistance is Futile.

My .02 is to go with something that feels good in your hand, and DVC Ventures can help with that. If you're leaning towards polymer, you might consider a S&W M&P in 9mm. I don't own one but I did shoot a friend's and it felt comfortable- for me. Another (non-polymer) suggestion would be a CZ 75. As to wanting "more technical chops" than a 1911, well... the 1911 design has weathered 100 years of "innovation" and is still going strong. Check out the STI Spartans from Gunnar at Armco (a CGN supporter; see ads at top of page.) But that's a .45 and they're not the easiest or cheapest to learn to shoot. He's a really good guy to deal with, BTW.

No one has mentioned it yet, but I wouldn't pooh-pooh a .22 semi auto, such as a Ruger or a Browning Buckmark. Why? Aside from recoil management, you can hone your shooting skills for much less $$ than any centre-fire, and what you learn about trigger pull, stance and sight picture will translate to a bigger gun. Sure, a 9mm or .45 is more fun to shoot , but if you want to do a lot of shooting for a minimal investment a .22 is the way to go. Besides, you know you'll be buying another handgun at some point anyway, don't you?

I'd strongly suggest getting into reloading, too. That will help take the bite out of shooting a centrefire pistol. You're going to have to collect the brass that your pistol will spit all over the firing line anyway, so why not reload it? You can also get cast bullets from The Bullet Barn (thebulletbarn.com); they even have a fellow in Maple Ridge who brings their bullets in locally.

As to a SHTF scenario, in the extremely rare event of such a thing ever happening, competence with whatever firearms you have will likely far outweigh three or four extra rounds in the mag, or even 9mm vs. .45.

Stuart

 

[Onagoth]

Not a revolver fan, sorry.

Even the 1911 looks a bit "dated" to me. I'm looking for something with some technical chops, and I will likely be looking at upgrades down the road. Sounds like Glock is a good option after all...

EDIT:

>if zombies invade there wont be any mag restrictions.

Can you even own a 17 round mag? How does the law on this work, you can own a large mag and not fill it all the way, or are 17 round mags illegal to possess?

>buy a 9mm first, and use it as a stepping stone and save money on ammo til you can afford a nice .45

I think I might just do that.

Glock 17 round mags pinned to 10 are common in Canada. Dynamite Monkey sells them on the EE, he's a reputable guy if you end up needing some.

 

[Sambaru]

Lot of great advice here already but I wanted to offer my thoughts...

DVC is a great recommendation... buying a gun without first shooting it is like buying a car without test driving it so I highly recommend this as many others have. They have most of the pistol models you would want to try.

What I will do is tell you a story about me... I went through this same dilemma of course. For what gun to buy, I immediately thought between HK USP and SIG Sauer P226 based on their reputations. After shooting both, I discovered neither were really for me so I would try others (<- why test shooting is important!). Glock was also a frontrunner solely because they are inexpensive and support/parts/accessories are sooooo freaking plentiful. Shot a Glock and couldn't handle the grip and grip angle. I have pretty much shot everything out there and just went with what felt the best to me, which was a Walther P99. I held it, fired it, and knew it was it. A lot of pros (and most of those are subjective) but the cons are the price (~$1200) and the fact that they are not common so support/accessories are harder to come by. I have no regrets and I love my P99 though.

It's .40 and I hope to purchase a 9mm soon so I'm going through the dilemma all over again! If money was not an issue, I would probably get an HK P30L (~$1200 again) but I'm also thinking <$700 Glock, M&P to save money.

As for caliber, I actually understand your logic about the capacity limit. I feel the same way. I can only have 10 max, I would rather have 10 big ones! Also, it feels like a waste to me that many pistols are designed to hold 17, 18 rounds and we can only have 10. It's like if 4 cylinders was the maximum you could have in a car, why would you ever buy a Ferrari or something since it's been neutered by Canada? Anyway, my main factor for choosing caliber was price. If I was rich, I woulda gone .45 (so not the P99 since there are no .45 P99), and I felt 9mm was too small to have as my only gun so I went to the middle .40. This, I do regret because of the extra cost. I don't shoot nearly as much as I would like to because ammo is too expensive. To be fair, I was duped by the salesman because I asked how much price difference there is between 9 and .40 and he said $2-3 a box. I GUESS HE MEANT $8-9 a box but didn't tell me this until after I had signed off and paid for the .40 pistol.

I hope this long-ass story about my life helps!

Sam

 

[bollox]

^^^ 9mm is too small for what? Making .045" smaller holes in paper?

 

[BCRider]

And here I thought that this was the last "what gun should I buy" thread.

Since you're in Vancouver you should not even think about doing anything but go to DVC in Coquitlam and try out all the handguns that they have. Go on a quiet evening such as Tuesday through Thursday. Don't even THINK about going on Friday evening since that's lady's night and it's commonly a real zoo. Or go on Sunday afternoon. THings are typically quite peaceful then and you'll be able to shoot two magazines from one gun then two from the next and so on until you've tried all the 9mm's they have and not break the bank too badly.

Keep notes and after the first time through the entire lot with at least one magazine go back and try the top three or four again. From there make more notes think about it while you eat some of their popcorn and then try the top three or four again.

And don't forget to ask to try the CZ Shadow that they bring out on request. If you're anything like me you'll try all the rest then get blown away by the Shadow and go away salivating over the thought of buying one.... or you may find you're a GG (Glock Guy). Or any of a number of other options. But if you find that you're a Sig Soldier then be prepared for some sticker shock. Dem things ain't cheap!

 

[BCRider]

....can someone give me the pro's and con's of a 1911 compared to a "glock" style pistol with the covered hammer? ......What about 10mm or .40? Better question, how does one even go about deciding what caliber they want?

Well first off they are not covered hammers but instead they use a spring loaded striker pin instead of a hammer.

If you get to DVC they have 1911 style guns in 9mm (STI Trojan), .40 (STI Ranger II) and .45 (Sig wannabe 1911 with an accessory rail.) So you can try them out for yourself.

If you're on any sort of a budget then stick with 9mm as a maximum. Or even go with a .22 for now to start out with and use as a training gun.

And although a .22 makes a good training gun you don't need to outgrow it. They are actually good fun on their own merit as long as you're not feeding a macho ego and trying to compensate for something...

In the meantime here's some links to resources that you can read to learn how to hold the guns so you can better evaluate them;

An excellent description of the two handed thumbs forward semi auto pistol grip. This write up ties in well with the next link.
http://www.handgunsmag.com/tactics_training/combatg_100306/

Todd Jarret in a trailer for a video on pistol gripping and shooting. Lots of good hints.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysa50-plo48

Revolver handling. Five great vids from the master, Jerry Miculek.
http://www.myoutdoortv.com/pdk/web/smith.html?feedPID=00zG15zm84msK0GbWemanhJ0KNWQYqM4l

And the ever popular self help bullseye target for correcting bad groupings.
http://www.is-lan.com/challenge/images/Pistol-Correction.pdf

 

[rdelliott]

Not a revolver fan, sorry.

I thought I wasn't a revolver fan too. Then I got the opportunity to shoot a S&W Highway Patrolman, and suddenly realized that my life would be tragically incomplete if I didn't own a service-revolver length .357.

Fast-forward a year and I have a stainless GP-100 with the 4.2" barrel (which is a couple of millimeters out of Prohib territory and Wendy and Allan Rock can suck on those millimeters and choke) in the safe and love it with a depraved and unholy passion.

And I'm thinking about a .460 VTR. Don't knock revolvers until you've had a chance to try one. Even .357 is noticeably boomier than .45 ACP... More power, Igor!

 

[IM_Lugger]

Any of these should do - Beretta 92, M&P, CZ 75, P226

 

[BP7]

as a beginner, i found it much easier to shoot a revolver than an automatic pistol. aside from the BOOM! factor, i personally found a 38 Special revolver easier to shoot as a 22LR pistol. and it's less of a "baby gun" too which helps on the "i don't wanna feel like a beginner ALL the time" factor. and with a 357Mag, you can practice nicely with 38 and then go BOOM with the 357. heck, can even mix them in the cylinder, and add in a snap-cap so that you never really know what's going to happen when you go "click". in an automatic pistol, if you load a snap-cap and pull the trigger, you then gotta rack the slide manually to load the next (real) round. in a revolver, just pull the hammer like you would do anyways - or pull the trigger in double-action like you would do anyways.




damn it, i'm buying a revolver!

 

[josquin]

I thought I wasn't a revolver fan too....

I wasn't sure, either, but when I saw one of these (a S&W 625-8 in .45 ACP/Auto Rim) on the EE:

I knew I had to have it. Very comfortable to shoot; those Hogue grips really fit me like a glove.

Stuart

 

[sulisa]

CZ SP-01 Shadow makes a great first gun.

I'm partial to Sig 226, but unsubstantiated rumours say parts and accessories are hard to get at the moment. I've fired the Glocks, and while they feel a bit strange initially, I got used to them quickly.

Norinco 1911 copies are rumoured to be alright, apparently they received tooling or manufacturing assistance or guidance from Colt (I just heard that, not sure if it's true). Not sure how good their other handgun copies are.

Check the list of approved guns for IPSC Production before you buy, then you can join IPSC and have a bit of fun with it.